Network supported low latency security-based orchestration

ABSTRACT

Various aspects of methods, systems, and use cases include security-based orchestration. A method may include evaluating, within a secure environment of an untrusted device, a preamble to determine a set of security requirements. The method may include, providing, to an attestation server, an indication of security parameters for services of the untrusted device corresponding to security requirements of the set of security requirements, and in response to receiving a confirmation from the attestation server, providing a request to the untrusted device outside the secure environment to generate a trusted domain including the services.

BACKGROUND

Edge computing, at a general level, refers to the implementation,coordination, and use of computing and resources at locations closer tothe “edge” or collection of “edges” of the network. The purpose of thisarrangement is to improve total cost of ownership, reduce applicationand network latency, reduce network backhaul traffic and associatedenergy consumption, improve service capabilities, and improve compliancewith security or data privacy requirements (especially as compared toconventional cloud computing). Components that can perform edgecomputing operations (“edge nodes”) can reside in whatever locationneeded by the system architecture or ad hoc service (e.g., in an highperformance compute data center or cloud installation; a designated edgenode server, an enterprise server, a roadside server, a telecom centraloffice; or a local or peer at-the-edge device being served consumingedge services).

Applications that have been adapted for edge computing include but arenot limited to virtualization of traditional network functions (e.g., tooperate telecommunications or Internet services) and the introduction ofnext-generation features and services (e.g., to support 5G networkservices). Use-cases which are projected to extensively utilize edgecomputing include connected self-driving cars, surveillance. Internet ofThings (IoT) device data analytics, video encoding and analytics,location aware services, device sensing in Smart Cities, among manyother network and compute intensive services.

Edge computing may, in some scenarios, offer or host a cloud-likedistributed service, to offer orchestration and management forapplications and coordinated service instances among many types ofstorage and compute resources. Edge computing is also expected to beclosely integrated with existing use cases and technology developed forIoT and Fog/distributed networking configurations, as endpoint devices,clients, and gateways attempt to access network resources andapplications at locations closer to the edge of the network.

A new era of compute is emerging in which intensive compute operationsare no longer performed primarily in data centers at the core of anetwork. Rather, with new data transport technologies, such as 5G andnew types of fabrics (e.g., network architectures), compute resourcesmay be placed in locations that are remote from a conventional datacenter. For example, compute resources may be available both in celltowers, base stations, and central offices. Furthermore, given theirremote placement (e.g., remote from the core of a network), many of thecompute devices that will perform the compute operations or interactwith the edge devices may have unknown security clearance. As such, thesecurity of compute locations may fluctuate over time leading to aninability to guarantee a fixed level of security.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the drawings, which are not necessarily drawn to scale, like numeralsmay describe similar components in different views. Like numerals havingdifferent letter suffixes may represent different instances of similarcomponents. The drawings illustrate generally, by way of example, butnot by way of limitation, various embodiments discussed in the presentdocument.

FIG. 1 illustrates an overview of an edge cloud configuration for edgecomputing.

FIG. 2 illustrates operational layers among endpoints, an edge cloud,and cloud computing environments.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example approach for networking and services in anedge computing system.

FIG. 4 illustrates deployment of a virtual edge configuration in an edgecomputing system operated among multiple edge nodes and multipletenants.

FIG. 5 illustrates various compute arrangements deploying containers inan edge computing system.

FIG. 6 illustrates a compute and communication use case involving mobileaccess to applications in an edge computing system.

FIG. 7A provides an overview of example components for compute deployedat a compute node in an edge computing system.

FIG. 7B provides a further overview of example components within acomputing device in an edge computing system.

FIG. 8 illustrates a domain topology for respective internet-of-things(IoT) networks coupled through links to respective gateways, accordingto an example.

FIG. 9 illustrates a cloud computing network in communication with amesh network of IoT devices operating as a fog device at the Edge of thecloud computing network, according to an example.

FIG. 10 illustrates a drawing of a cloud computing network, or cloud, incommunication with a number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices,according to an example.

FIG. 11 illustrates a flow diagram showing security-based orchestrationusing a preamble according to an example.

FIG. 12 illustrates an example architecture for security-basedorchestration using a preamble according to an example.

FIG. 13 illustrates a flow diagram showing security-based orchestrationincluding a set of rules associated with services according to anexample.

FIG. 14 illustrates a flowchart showing a technique for security-basedorchestration using a preamble according to an example.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The system and methods described herein may be used to provide networksupported low latency security-based orchestration. One big challenge innetwork orchestration today is that systems are highly distributed andheterogenous. This implies that when a device or end user needs toexecute a particular function to a particular data set it becomes verycomplicated to provide requirements (e.g., data security, isolation,compute needs, etc.) because the requirements and execution depend onfeatures and characteristics of an execution device. On the other hand,services may be able to take some trade-offs on what or how to execute afunction depending on such features. The systems and methods describedherein solve this technical problem by providing a last mileorchestration decision using a preamble to represent end user or computerequirements, specifications, or needs.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram 100 showing an overview of a configuration foredge computing, which includes a layer of processing referred to in manyof the following examples as an “edge cloud”. As shown, the edge cloud110 is co-located at an edge location, such as an access point or basestation 140, a local processing hub 150, or a central office 120, andthus may include multiple entities, devices, and equipment instances.The edge cloud 110 is located much closer to the endpoint (consumer andproducer) data sources 160 (e.g., autonomous vehicles 161, userequipment 162, business and industrial equipment 163, video capturedevices 164, drones 165, smart cities and building devices 166, sensorsand IoT devices 167, etc.) than the cloud data center 130. Compute,memory, and storage resources which are offered at the edges in the edgecloud 110 are critical to providing ultra-low latency response times forservices and functions used by the endpoint data sources 160 as well asreduce network backhaul traffic from the edge cloud 110 toward clouddata center 130 thus improving energy consumption and overall networkusages among other benefits.

Compute, memory, and storage are scarce resources, and generallydecrease depending on the edge location (e.g., fewer processingresources being available at consumer endpoint devices, than at a basestation, than at a central office). However, the closer that the edgelocation is to the endpoint (e.g., user equipment (UE)), the more thatspace and power is often constrained. Thus, edge computing attempts toreduce the amount of resources needed for network services, through thedistribution of more resources which are located closer bothgeographically and in network access time. In this manner, edgecomputing attempts to bring the compute resources to the workload datawhere appropriate, or bring the workload data to the compute resources.

The following describes aspects of an edge cloud architecture thatcovers multiple potential deployments and addresses restrictions thatsome network operators or service providers may have in their owninfrastructures. These include, variation of configurations based on theedge location (because edges at a base station level, for instance, mayhave more constrained performance and capabilities in a multi-tenantscenario); configurations based on the type of compute, memory, storage,fabric, acceleration, or like resources available to edge locations,tiers of locations, or groups of locations; the service, security, andmanagement and orchestration capabilities; and related objectives toachieve usability and performance of end services. These deployments mayaccomplish processing in network layers that may be considered as “nearedge”, “close edge”, “local edge”, “middle edge”, or “far edge” layers,depending on latency, distance, and timing characteristics.

Edge computing is a developing paradigm where computing is performed ator closer to the “edge” of a network, typically through the use of acompute platform (e.g., x86 or ARM compute hardware architecture)implemented at base stations, gateways, network routers, or otherdevices which are much closer to endpoint devices producing andconsuming the data. For example, edge gateway servers may be equippedwith pools of memory and storage resources to perform computation inreal-time for low latency use-cases (e.g., autonomous driving or videosurveillance) for connected client devices. Or as an example, basestations may be augmented with compute and acceleration resources todirectly process service workloads for connected user equipment, withoutfurther communicating data via backhaul networks. Or as another example,central office network management hardware may be replaced withstandardized compute hardware that performs virtualized networkfunctions and offers compute resources for the execution of services andconsumer functions for connected devices. Within edge computingnetworks, there may be scenarios in services which the compute resourcewill be “moved” to the data, as well as scenarios in which the data willbe “moved” to the compute resource. Or as an example, base stationcompute, acceleration and network resources can provide services inorder to scale to workload demands on an as needed basis by activatingdormant capacity (subscription, capacity on demand) in order to managecorner cases, emergencies or to provide longevity for deployed resourcesover a significantly longer implemented lifecycle.

FIG. 2 illustrates operational layers among endpoints, an edge cloud,and cloud computing environments. Specifically, FIG. 2 depicts examplesof computational use cases 205, utilizing the edge cloud 110 amongmultiple illustrative layers of network computing. The layers begin atan endpoint (devices and things) layer 200, which accesses the edgecloud 110 to conduct data creation, analysis, and data consumptionactivities. The edge cloud 110 may span multiple network layers, such asan edge devices layer 210 having gateways, on-premise servers, ornetwork equipment (nodes 215) located in physically proximate edgesystems; a network access layer 220, encompassing base stations, radioprocessing units, network hubs, regional data centers (DC), or localnetwork equipment (equipment 225); and any equipment, devices, or nodeslocated therebetween (in layer 212, not illustrated in detail). Thenetwork communications within the edge cloud 110 and among the variouslayers may occur via any number of wired or wireless mediums, includingvia connectivity architectures and technologies not depicted.

Examples of latency, resulting from network communication distance andprocessing time constraints, may range from less than a millisecond (ms)when among the endpoint layer 200, under 5 ms at the edge devices layer210, to even between 10 to 40 ms when communicating with nodes at thenetwork access layer 220. Beyond the edge cloud 110 are core network 230and cloud data center 240 layers, each with increasing latency (e.g.,between 50-60 ms at the core network layer 230, to 100 or more ms at thecloud data center layer). As a result, operations at a core network datacenter 235 or a cloud data center 245, with latencies of at least 50 to100 ms or more, will not be able to accomplish many time-criticalfunctions of the use cases 205. Each of these latency values areprovided for purposes of illustration and contrast; it will beunderstood that the use of other access network mediums and technologiesmay further reduce the latencies. In some examples, respective portionsof the network may be categorized as “close edge”, “local edge”. “nearedge”, “middle edge”, or “far edge” layers, relative to a network sourceand destination. For instance, from the perspective of the core networkdata center 235 or a cloud data center 245, a central office or contentdata network may be considered as being located within a “near edge”layer (“near” to the cloud, having high latency values whencommunicating with the devices and endpoints of the use cases 205),whereas an access point, base station, on-premise server, or networkgateway may be considered as located within a “far edge” layer (“far”from the cloud, having low latency values when communicating with thedevices and endpoints of the use cases 205). It will be understood thatother categorizations of a particular network layer as constituting a“close”, “local”, “near”, “middle”, or “far” edge may be based onlatency, distance, number of network hops, or other measurablecharacteristics, as measured from a source in any of the network layers200-240.

The various use cases 205 may access resources under usage pressure fromincoming streams, due to multiple services utilizing the edge cloud. Toachieve results with low latency, the services executed within the edgecloud 110 balance varying requirements in terms of: (a) Priority(throughput or latency) and Quality of Service (QoS) (e.g., traffic foran autonomous car may have higher priority than a temperature sensor interms of response time requirement; or, a performancesensitivity/bottleneck may exist at a compute/accelerator, memory,storage, or network resource, depending on the application); (b)Reliability and Resiliency (e.g., some input streams need to be actedupon and the traffic routed with mission-critical reliability, where assome other input streams may be tolerate an occasional failure,depending on the application); and (c) Physical constraints (e.g.,power, cooling and form-factor).

The end-to-end service view for these use cases involves the concept ofa service-flow and is associated with a transaction. The transactiondetails the overall service requirement for the entity consuming theservice, as well as the associated services for the resources,workloads, workflows, and business functional and business levelrequirements. The services executed with the “terms” described may bemanaged at each layer in a way to assure real time, and runtimecontractual compliance for the transaction during the lifecycle of theservice. When a component in the transaction is missing its agreed toSLA, the system as a whole (components in the transaction) may providethe ability to (1) understand the impact of the SLA violation, and (2)augment other components in the system to resume overall transactionSLA, and (3) implement steps to remediate.

Thus, with these variations and service features in mind, edge computingwithin the edge cloud 110 may provide the ability to serve and respondto multiple applications of the use cases 205 (e.g., object tracking,video surveillance, connected cars, etc.) in real-time or nearreal-time, and meet ultra-low latency requirements for these multipleapplications. These advantages enable a whole new class of applications(Virtual Network Functions (VNFs), Function as a Service (FaaS), Edge asa Service (EaaS), standard processes, etc.), which cannot leverageconventional cloud computing due to latency or other limitations.

However, with the advantages of edge computing comes the followingcaveats. The devices located at the edge are often resource constrainedand therefore there is pressure on usage of edge resources. Typically,this is addressed through the pooling of memory and storage resourcesfor use by multiple users (tenants) and devices. The edge may be powerand cooling constrained and therefore the power usage needs to beaccounted for by the applications that are consuming the most power.There may be inherent power-performance tradeoffs in these pooled memoryresources, as many of them are likely to use emerging memorytechnologies, where more power requires greater memory bandwidth.Likewise, improved security of hardware and root of trust trustedfunctions are also required, because edge locations may be unmanned andmay even need permissioned access (e.g., when housed in a third-partylocation). Such issues are magnified in the edge cloud 110 in amulti-tenant, multi-owner, or multi-access setting, where services andapplications are requested by many users, especially as network usagedynamically fluctuates and the composition of the multiple stakeholders,use cases, and services changes.

At a more generic level, an edge computing system may be described toencompass any number of deployments at the previously discussed layersoperating in the edge cloud 110 (network layers 200-240), which providecoordination from client and distributed computing devices. One or moreedge gateway nodes, one or more edge aggregation nodes, and one or morecore data centers may be distributed across layers of the network toprovide an implementation of the edge computing system by or on behalfof a telecommunication service provider (“telco”, or “TSP”),internet-of-things service provider, cloud service provider (CSP),enterprise entity, or any other number of entities. Variousimplementations and configurations of the edge computing system may beprovided dynamically, such as when orchestrated to meet serviceobjectives.

Consistent with the examples provided herein, a client compute node maybe embodied as any type of endpoint component, device, appliance, orother thing capable of communicating as a producer or consumer of data.Further, the label “node” or “device” as used in the edge computingsystem does not necessarily mean that such node or device operates in aclient or agent/minion/follower role; rather, any of the nodes ordevices in the edge computing system refer to individual entities,nodes, or subsystems which include discrete or connected hardware orsoftware configurations to facilitate or use the edge cloud 110.

As such, the edge cloud 110 is formed from network components andfunctional features operated by and within edge gateway nodes, edgeaggregation nodes, or other edge compute nodes among network layers210-230. The edge cloud 110 thus may be embodied as any type of networkthat provides edge computing and/or storage resources which areproximately located to radio access network (RAN) capable endpointdevices (e.g., mobile computing devices. IoT devices, smart devices,etc.), which are discussed herein. In other words, the edge cloud 110may be envisioned as an “edge” which connects the endpoint devices andtraditional network access points that serve as an ingress point intoservice provider core networks, including mobile carrier networks (e.g.,Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) networks, Long-TermEvolution (LTE) networks, 5G/6G networks, etc.), while also providingstorage and/or compute capabilities. Other types and forms of networkaccess (e.g., Wi-Fi, long-range wireless, wired networks includingoptical networks) may also be utilized in place of or in combinationwith such 3GPP carrier networks.

The network components of the edge cloud 110 may be servers,multi-tenant servers, appliance computing devices, and/or any other typeof computing devices. For example, the edge cloud 110 may be anappliance computing device that is a self-contained processing systemincluding a housing, case or shell. In some cases, edge devices aredevices presented in the network for a specific purpose (e.g., a trafficlight), but that have processing or other capacities that may beharnessed for other purposes. Such edge devices may be independent fromother networked devices and provided with a housing having a form factorsuitable for its primary purpose; yet be available for other computetasks that do not interfere with its primary task. Edge devices includeInternet of Things devices. The appliance computing device may includehardware and software components to manage local issues such as devicetemperature, vibration, resource utilization, updates, power issues,physical and network security, etc. Example hardware for implementing anappliance computing device is described in conjunction with FIG. 7B. Theedge cloud 110 may also include one or more servers and/or one or moremulti-tenant servers. Such a server may implement a virtual computingenvironment such as a hypervisor for deploying virtual machines, anoperating system that implements containers, etc. Such virtual computingenvironments provide an execution environment in which one or moreapplications may execute while being isolated from one or more otherapplications.

In FIG. 3, various client endpoints 310 (in the form of mobile devices,computers, autonomous vehicles, business computing equipment, industrialprocessing equipment) exchange requests and responses that are specificto the type of endpoint network aggregation. For instance, clientendpoints 310 may obtain network access via a wired broadband network,by exchanging requests and responses 322 through an on-premise networksystem 332. Some client endpoints 310, such as mobile computing devices,may obtain network access via a wireless broadband network, byexchanging requests and responses 324 through an access point (e.g.,cellular network tower) 334. Some client endpoints 310, such asautonomous vehicles may obtain network access for requests and responses326 via a wireless vehicular network through a street-located networksystem 336. However, regardless of the type of network access, the TSPmay deploy aggregation points 342, 344 within the edge cloud 110 toaggregate traffic and requests. Thus, within the edge cloud 110, the TSPmay deploy various compute and storage resources, such as at edgeaggregation nodes 340, to provide requested content. The edgeaggregation nodes 340 and other systems of the edge cloud 110 areconnected to a cloud or data center 360, which uses a backhaul network350 to fulfill higher-latency requests from a cloud/data center forwebsites, applications, database servers, etc. Additional orconsolidated instances of the edge aggregation nodes 340 and theaggregation points 342, 344, including those deployed on a single serverframework, may also be present within the edge cloud 110 or other areasof the TSP infrastructure.

FIG. 4 illustrates deployment and orchestration for virtual edgeconfigurations across an edge computing system operated among multipleedge nodes and multiple tenants. Specifically, FIG. 4 depictscoordination of a first edge node 422 and a second edge node 424 in anedge computing system 400, to fulfill requests and responses for variousclient endpoints 410 (e.g., smart cities/building systems, mobiledevices, computing devices, business/logistics systems, industrialsystems, etc.), which access various virtual edge instances. Here, thevirtual edge instances 432, 434 provide edge compute capabilities andprocessing in an edge cloud, with access to a cloud/data center 440 forhigher-latency requests for websites, applications, database servers,etc. However, the edge cloud enables coordination of processing amongmultiple edge nodes for multiple tenants or entities.

In the example of FIG. 4, these virtual edge instances include: a firstvirtual edge 432, offered to a first tenant (Tenant 1), which offers afirst combination of edge storage, computing, and services; and a secondvirtual edge 434, offering a second combination of edge storage,computing, and services. The virtual edge instances 432, 434 aredistributed among the edge nodes 422, 424, and may include scenarios inwhich a request and response are fulfilled from the same or differentedge nodes. The configuration of the edge nodes 422, 424 to operate in adistributed yet coordinated fashion occurs based on edge provisioningfunctions 450. The functionality of the edge nodes 422, 424 to providecoordinated operation for applications and services, among multipletenants, occurs based on orchestration functions 460.

It should be understood that some of the devices in 410 are multi-tenantdevices where Tenant 1 may function within a tenant1 ‘slice’ while aTenant 2 may function within a tenant2 slice (and, in further examples,additional or sub-tenants may exist: and each tenant may even bespecifically entitled and transactionally tied to a specific set offeatures all the way day to specific hardware features). A trustedmulti-tenant device may further contain a tenant specific cryptographickey such that the combination of key and slice may be considered a “rootof trust” (RoT) or tenant specific RoT. A RoT may further be computeddynamically composed using a DICE (Device Identity Composition Engine)architecture such that a single DICE hardware building block may be usedto construct layered trusted computing base contexts for layering ofdevice capabilities (such as a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)).The RoT may further be used for a trusted computing context to enable a“fan-out” that is useful for supporting multi-tenancy. Within amulti-tenant environment, the respective edge nodes 422, 424 may operateas security feature enforcement points for local resources allocated tomultiple tenants per node. Additionally, tenant runtime and applicationexecution (e.g., in instances 432, 434) may serve as an enforcementpoint for a security feature that creates a virtual edge abstraction ofresources spanning potentially multiple physical hosting platforms.Finally, the orchestration functions 460 at an orchestration entity mayoperate as a security feature enforcement point for marshallingresources along tenant boundaries.

Edge computing nodes may partition resources (memory, central processingunit (CPU), graphics processing unit (GPU), interrupt controller,input/output (I/O) controller, memory controller, bus controller, etc.)where respective partitionings may contain a RoT capability and wherefan-out and layering according to a DICE model may further be applied toEdge Nodes. Cloud computing nodes consisting of containers. FaaSengines. Servlets, servers, or other computation abstraction may bepartitioned according to a DICE layering and fan-out structure tosupport a RoT context for each. Accordingly, the respective RoTsspanning devices 410, 422, and 440 may coordinate the establishment of adistributed trusted computing base (DTCB) such that a tenant-specificvirtual trusted secure channel linking all elements end to end can beestablished.

Further, it will be understood that a container may have data orworkload specific keys protecting its content from a previous edge node.As part of migration of a container, a pod controller at a source edgenode may obtain a migration key from a target edge node pod controllerwhere the migration key is used to wrap the container-specific keys.When the container/pod is migrated to the target edge node, theunwrapping key is exposed to the pod controller that then decrypts thewrapped keys. The keys may now be used to perform operations oncontainer specific data. The migration functions may be gated byproperly attested edge nodes and pod managers (as described above).

In further examples, an edge computing system is extended to provide fororchestration of multiple applications through the use of containers (acontained, deployable unit of software that provides code and neededdependencies) in a multi-owner, multi-tenant environment. A multi-tenantorchestrator may be used to perform key management, trust anchormanagement, and other security functions related to the provisioning andlifecycle of the trusted ‘slice’ concept in FIG. 4. For instance, anedge computing system may be configured to fulfill requests andresponses for various client endpoints from multiple virtual edgeinstances (and, from a cloud or remote data center). The use of thesevirtual edge instances may support multiple tenants and multipleapplications (e.g., augmented reality (AR)/virtual reality (VR),enterprise applications, content delivery, gaming, compute offload)simultaneously. Further, there may be multiple types of applicationswithin the virtual edge instances (e.g., normal applications; latencysensitive applications; latency-critical applications; user planeapplications; networking applications; etc.). The virtual edge instancesmay also be spanned across systems of multiple owners at differentgeographic locations (or, respective computing systems and resourceswhich are co-owned or co-managed by multiple owners).

For instance, each edge node 422, 424 may implement the use ofcontainers, such as with the use of a container “pod” 426, 428 providinga group of one or more containers. In a setting that uses one or morecontainer pods, a pod controller or orchestrator is responsible forlocal control and orchestration of the containers in the pod. Variousedge node resources (e.g., storage, compute, services, depicted withhexagons) provided for the respective edge slices 432, 434 arepartitioned according to the needs of each container.

With the use of container pods, a pod controller oversees thepartitioning and allocation of containers and resources. The podcontroller receives instructions from an orchestrator (e.g.,orchestrator 460) that instructs the controller on how best to partitionphysical resources and for what duration, such as by receiving keyperformance indicator (KPI) targets based on SLA contracts. The podcontroller determines which container requires which resources and forhow long in order to complete the workload and satisfy the SLA. The podcontroller also manages container lifecycle operations such as: creatingthe container, provisioning it with resources and applications,coordinating intermediate results between multiple containers working ona distributed application together, dismantling containers when workloadcompletes, and the like. Additionally, a pod controller may serve asecurity role that prevents assignment of resources until the righttenant authenticates or prevents provisioning of data or a workload to acontainer until an attestation result is satisfied.

Also, with the use of container pods, tenant boundaries can still existbut in the context of each pod of containers. If each tenant specificpod has a tenant specific pod controller, there will be a shared podcontroller that consolidates resource allocation requests to avoidtypical resource starvation situations. Further controls may be providedto ensure attestation and trustworthiness of the pod and pod controller.For instance, the orchestrator 460 may provision an attestationverification policy to local pod controllers that perform attestationverification. If an attestation satisfies a policy for a first tenantpod controller but not a second tenant pod controller, then the secondpod could be migrated to a different edge node that does satisfy it.Alternatively, the first pod may be allowed to execute and a differentshared pod controller is installed and invoked prior to the second podexecuting.

FIG. 5 illustrates additional compute arrangements deploying containersin an edge computing system. As a simplified example, systemarrangements 510, 520 depict settings in which a pod controller (e.g.,container managers 511, 521, and container orchestrator 531) is adaptedto launch containerized pods, functions, and functions-as-a-serviceinstances through execution via compute nodes (515 in arrangement 510),or to separately execute containerized virtualized network functionsthrough execution via compute nodes (523 in arrangement 520). Thisarrangement is adapted for use of multiple tenants in system arrangement530 (using compute nodes 537), where containerized pods (e.g., pods512), functions (e.g., functions 513. VNFs 522, 536), andfunctions-as-a-service instances (e.g., FaaS instance 514) are launchedwithin virtual machines (e.g., VMs 534, 535 for tenants 532, 533)specific to respective tenants (aside the execution of virtualizednetwork functions). This arrangement is further adapted for use insystem arrangement 540, which provides containers 542, 543, or executionof the various functions, applications, and functions on compute nodes544, as coordinated by an container-based orchestration system 541.

The system arrangements of depicted in FIG. 5 provides an architecturethat treats VMs, Containers, and Functions equally in terms ofapplication composition (and resulting applications are combinations ofthese three ingredients). Each ingredient may involve use of one or moreaccelerator (FPGA, ASIC) components as a local backend. In this manner,applications can be split across multiple edge owners, coordinated by anorchestrator.

In the context of FIG. 5, the pod controller/container manager,container orchestrator, and individual nodes may provide a securityenforcement point. However, tenant isolation may be orchestrated wherethe resources allocated to a tenant are distinct from resourcesallocated to a second tenant, but edge owners cooperate to ensureresource allocations are not shared across tenant boundaries. Or,resource allocations could be isolated across tenant boundaries, astenants could allow “use” via a subscription or transaction/contractbasis. In these contexts, virtualization, containerization, enclaves andhardware partitioning schemes may be used by edge owners to enforcetenancy. Other isolation environments may include: bare metal(dedicated) equipment, virtual machines, containers, virtual machines oncontainers, or combinations thereof.

In further examples, aspects of software-defined or controlled siliconhardware, and other configurable hardware, may integrate with theapplications, functions, and services an edge computing system. Softwaredefined silicon may be used to ensure the ability for some resource orhardware ingredient to fulfill a contract or service level agreement,based on the ingredient's ability to remediate a portion of itself orthe workload (e.g., by an upgrade, reconfiguration, or provision of newfeatures within the hardware configuration itself).

It should be appreciated that the edge computing systems andarrangements discussed herein may be applicable in various solutions,services, and/or use cases involving mobility. As an example. FIG. 6shows a simplified vehicle compute and communication use case involvingmobile access to applications in an edge computing system 600 thatimplements an edge cloud 110. In this use case, respective clientcompute nodes 610 may be embodied as in-vehicle compute systems (e.g.,in-vehicle navigation and/or infotainment systems) located incorresponding vehicles which communicate with the edge gateway nodes 620during traversal of a roadway. For instance, the edge gateway nodes 620may be located in a roadside cabinet or other enclosure built-into astructure having other, separate, mechanical utility, which may beplaced along the roadway, at intersections of the roadway, or otherlocations near the roadway. As respective vehicles traverse along theroadway, the connection between its client compute node 610 and aparticular edge gateway device 620 may propagate so as to maintain aconsistent connection and context for the client compute node 610.Likewise, mobile edge nodes may aggregate at the high priority servicesor according to the throughput or latency resolution requirements forthe underlying service(s) (e.g., in the case of drones). The respectiveedge gateway devices 620 include an amount of processing and storagecapabilities and, as such, some processing and/or storage of data forthe client compute nodes 610 may be performed on one or more of the edgegateway devices 620.

The edge gateway devices 620 may communicate with one or more edgeresource nodes 640, which are illustratively embodied as computeservers, appliances or components located at or in a communication basestation 642 (e.g., a based station of a cellular network). As discussedabove, the respective edge resource nodes 640 include an amount ofprocessing and storage capabilities and, as such, some processing and/orstorage of data for the client compute nodes 610 may be performed on theedge resource node 640. For example, the processing of data that is lessurgent or important may be performed by the edge resource node 640,while the processing of data that is of a higher urgency or importancemay be performed by the edge gateway devices 620 (depending on, forexample, the capabilities of each component, or information in therequest indicating urgency or importance). Based on data access, datalocation or latency, work may continue on edge resource nodes when theprocessing priorities change during the processing activity. Likewise,configurable systems or hardware resources themselves can be activated(e.g., through a local orchestrator) to provide additional resources tomeet the new demand (e.g., adapt the compute resources to the workloaddata).

The edge resource node(s) 640 also communicate with the core data center650, which may include compute servers, appliances, and/or othercomponents located in a central location (e.g., a central office of acellular communication network). The core data center 650 may provide agateway to the global network cloud 660 (e.g., the Internet) for theedge cloud 110 operations formed by the edge resource node(s) 640 andthe edge gateway devices 620. Additionally, in some examples, the coredata center 650 may include an amount of processing and storagecapabilities and, as such, some processing and/or storage of data forthe client compute devices may be performed on the core data center 650(e.g., processing of low urgency or importance, or high complexity).

The edge gateway nodes 620 or the edge resource nodes 640 may offer theuse of stateful applications 632 and a geographic distributed database634. Although the applications 632 and database 634 are illustrated asbeing horizontally distributed at a layer of the edge cloud 110, it willbe understood that resources, services, or other components of theapplication may be vertically distributed throughout the edge cloud(including, part of the application executed at the client compute node610, other parts at the edge gateway nodes 620 or the edge resourcenodes 640, etc.). Additionally, as stated previously, there can be peerrelationships at any level to meet service objectives and obligations.Further, the data for a specific client or application can move fromedge to edge based on changing conditions (e.g., based on accelerationresource availability, following the car movement, etc.). For instance,based on the “rate of decay” of access, prediction can be made toidentify the next owner to continue, or when the data or computationalaccess will no longer be viable. These and other services may beutilized to complete the work that is needed to keep the transactioncompliant and lossless.

In further scenarios, a container 636 (or pod of containers) may beflexibly migrated from an edge node 620 to other edge nodes (e.g., 620,640, etc.) such that the container with an application and workload doesnot need to be reconstituted, re-compiled, re-interpreted in order formigration to work. However, in such settings, there may be some remedialor “swizzling” translation operations applied. For example, the physicalhardware at node 640 may differ from edge gateway node 620 andtherefore, the hardware abstraction layer (HAL) that makes up the bottomedge of the container will be re-mapped to the physical layer of thetarget edge node. This may involve some form of late-binding technique,such as binary translation of the HAL from the container native formatto the physical hardware format, or may involve mapping interfaces andoperations. A pod controller may be used to drive the interface mappingas part of the container lifecycle, which includes migration to/fromdifferent hardware environments.

The scenarios encompassed by FIG. 6 may utilize various types of mobileedge nodes, such as an edge node hosted in a vehicle(car/truck/tram/train) or other mobile unit, as the edge node will moveto other geographic locations along the platform hosting it. Withvehicle-to-vehicle communications, individual vehicles may even act asnetwork edge nodes for other cars, (e.g., to perform caching, reporting,data aggregation, etc.). Thus, it will be understood that theapplication components provided in various edge nodes may be distributedin static or mobile settings, including coordination between somefunctions or operations at individual endpoint devices or the edgegateway nodes 620, some others at the edge resource node 640, and othersin the core data center 650 or global network cloud 660.

In further configurations, the edge computing system may implement FaaScomputing capabilities through the use of respective executableapplications and functions. In an example, a developer writes functioncode (e.g., “computer code” herein) representing one or more computerfunctions, and the function code is uploaded to a FaaS platform providedby, for example, an edge node or data center. A trigger such as, forexample, a service use case or an edge processing event, initiates theexecution of the function code with the FaaS platform.

In an example of FaaS, a container is used to provide an environment inwhich function code (e.g., an application which may be provided by athird party) is executed. The container may be any isolated-executionentity such as a process, a Docker or Kubernetes container, a virtualmachine, etc. Within the edge computing system, various datacenter,edge, and endpoint (including mobile) devices are used to “spin up”functions (e.g., activate and/or allocate function actions) that arescaled on demand. The function code gets executed on the physicalinfrastructure (e.g., edge computing node) device and underlyingvirtualized containers. Finally, container is “spun down” (e.g.,deactivated and/or deallocated) on the infrastructure in response to theexecution being completed.

Further aspects of FaaS may enable deployment of edge functions in aservice fashion, including a support of respective functions thatsupport edge computing as a service (Edge-as-a-Service or “EaaS”).Additional features of FaaS may include: a granular billing componentthat enables customers (e.g., computer code developers) to pay only whentheir code gets executed; common data storage to store data for reuse byone or more functions; orchestration and management among individualfunctions; function execution management, parallelism, andconsolidation; management of container and function memory spaces;coordination of acceleration resources available for functions; anddistribution of functions between containers (including “warm”containers, already deployed or operating, versus “cold” which requireinitialization, deployment, or configuration).

The edge computing system 600 can include or be in communication with anedge provisioning node 644. The edge provisioning node 644 candistribute software such as the example computer readable instructions782 of FIG. 7B, to various receiving parties for implementing any of themethods described herein. The example edge provisioning node 644 may beimplemented by any computer server, home server, content deliverynetwork, virtual server, software distribution system, central facility,storage device, storage node, data facility, cloud service, etc.,capable of storing and/or transmitting software instructions (e.g.,code, scripts, executable binaries, containers, packages, compressedfiles, and/or derivatives thereof) to other computing devices.Component(s) of the example edge provisioning node 644 may be located ina cloud, in a local area network, in an edge network, in a wide areanetwork, on the Internet, and/or any other location communicativelycoupled with the receiving party(ies). The receiving parties may becustomers, clients, associates, users, etc. of the entity owning and/oroperating the edge provisioning node 644. For example, the entity thatowns and/or operates the edge provisioning node 644 may be a developer,a seller, and/or a licensor (or a customer and/or consumer thereof) ofsoftware instructions such as the example computer readable instructions782 of FIG. 7B. The receiving parties may be consumers, serviceproviders, users, retailers, OEMs, etc., who purchase and/or license thesoftware instructions for use and/or re-sale and/or sub-licensing.

In an example, edge provisioning node 644 includes one or more serversand one or more storage devices. The storage devices host computerreadable instructions such as the example computer readable instructions782 of FIG. 7B, as described below. Similarly to edge gateway devices620 described above, the one or more servers of the edge provisioningnode 644 are in communication with a base station 642 or other networkcommunication entity. In some examples, the one or more servers areresponsive to requests to transmit the software instructions to arequesting party as part of a commercial transaction. Payment for thedelivery, sale, and/or license of the software instructions may behandled by the one or more servers of the software distribution platformand/or via a third party payment entity. The servers enable purchasersand/or licensors to download the computer readable instructions 782 fromthe edge provisioning node 644. For example, the software instructions,which may correspond to the example computer readable instructions 782of FIG. 7B, may be downloaded to the example processor platform/s, whichis to execute the computer readable instructions 782 to implement themethods described herein.

In some examples, the processor platform(s) that execute the computerreadable instructions 782 can be physically located in differentgeographic locations, legal jurisdictions, etc. In some examples, one ormore servers of the edge provisioning node 644 periodically offer,transmit, and/or force updates to the software instructions (e.g., theexample computer readable instructions 782 of FIG. 7B) to ensureimprovements, patches, updates, etc. are distributed and applied to thesoftware instructions implemented at the end user devices. In someexamples, different components of the computer readable instructions 782can be distributed from different sources and/or to different processorplatforms; for example, different libraries, plug-ins, components, andother types of compute modules, whether compiled or interpreted, can bedistributed from different sources and/or to different processorplatforms. For example, a portion of the software instructions (e.g., ascript that is not, in itself, executable) may be distributed from afirst source while an interpreter (capable of executing the script) maybe distributed from a second source.

In further examples, any of the compute nodes or devices discussed withreference to the present edge computing systems and environment may befulfilled based on the components depicted in FIGS. 7A and 7B.Respective edge compute nodes may be embodied as a type of device,appliance, computer, or other “thing” capable of communicating withother edge, networking, or endpoint components. For example, an edgecompute device may be embodied as a personal computer, server,smartphone, a mobile compute device, a smart appliance, an in-vehiclecompute system (e.g., a navigation system), a self-contained devicehaving an outer case, shell, etc., or other device or system capable ofperforming the described functions.

In the simplified example depicted in FIG. 7A, an edge compute node 700includes a compute engine (also referred to herein as “computecircuitry”) 702, an input/output (I/O) subsystem 708, data storage 710,a communication circuitry subsystem 712, and, optionally, one or moreperipheral devices 714. In other examples, respective compute devicesmay include other or additional components, such as those typicallyfound in a computer (e.g., a display, peripheral devices, etc.).Additionally, in some examples, one or more of the illustrativecomponents may be incorporated in, or otherwise form a portion of,another component.

The compute node 700 may be embodied as any type of engine, device, orcollection of devices capable of performing various compute functions.In some examples, the compute node 700 may be embodied as a singledevice such as an integrated circuit, an embedded system, afield-programmable gate array (FPGA), a system-on-a-chip (SOC), or otherintegrated system or device. In the illustrative example, the computenode 700 includes or is embodied as a processor 704 and a memory 706.The processor 704 may be embodied as any type of processor capable ofperforming the functions described herein (e.g., executing anapplication). For example, the processor 704 may be embodied as amulti-core processor(s), a microcontroller, a processing unit, aspecialized or special purpose processing unit, or other processor orprocessing/controlling circuit.

In some examples, the processor 704 may be embodied as, include, or becoupled to an FPGA, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC),reconfigurable hardware or hardware circuitry, or other specializedhardware to facilitate performance of the functions described herein.Also in some examples, the processor 704 may be embodied as aspecialized x-processing unit (xPU) also known as a data processing unit(DPU), infrastructure processing unit (IPU), or network processing unit(NPU). Such an xPU may be embodied as a standalone circuit or circuitpackage, integrated within an SOC, or integrated with networkingcircuitry (e.g., in a SmartNIC, or enhanced SmartNIC), accelerationcircuitry, storage devices, or AI hardware (e.g., GPUs or programmedFPGAs). Such an xPU may be designed to receive programming to processone or more data streams and perform specific tasks and actions for thedata streams (such as hosting microservices, performing servicemanagement or orchestration, organizing or managing server or datacenter hardware, managing service meshes, or collecting and distributingtelemetry), outside of the CPU or general purpose processing hardware.However, it will be understood that a xPU, a SOC, a CPU, and othervariations of the processor 704 may work in coordination with each otherto execute many types of operations and instructions within and onbehalf of the compute node 700.

The memory 706 may be embodied as any type of volatile (e.g., dynamicrandom access memory (DRAM), etc.) or non-volatile memory or datastorage capable of performing the functions described herein. Volatilememory may be a storage medium that requires power to maintain the stateof data stored by the medium. Non-limiting examples of volatile memorymay include various types of random access memory (RAM), such as DRAM orstatic random access memory (SRAM). One particular type of DRAM that maybe used in a memory module is synchronous dynamic random access memory(SDRAM).

In an example, the memory device is a block addressable memory device,such as those based on NAND or NOR technologies. A memory device mayalso include a three dimensional crosspoint memory device (e.g., Intel®3D XPoint™ memory), or other byte addressable write-in-place nonvolatilememory devices. The memory device may refer to the die itself and/or toa packaged memory product. In some examples, 3D crosspoint memory (e.g.,Intel® 3D XPoint™ memory) may comprise a transistor-less stackable crosspoint architecture in which memory cells sit at the intersection of wordlines and bit lines and are individually addressable and in which bitstorage is based on a change in bulk resistance. In some examples, allor a portion of the memory 706 may be integrated into the processor 704.The memory 706 may store various software and data used during operationsuch as one or more applications, data operated on by theapplication(s), libraries, and drivers.

The compute circuitry 702 is communicatively coupled to other componentsof the compute node 700 via the I/O subsystem 708, which may be embodiedas circuitry and/or components to facilitate input/output operationswith the compute circuitry 702 (e.g., with the processor 704 and/or themain memory 706) and other components of the compute circuitry 702. Forexample, the I/O subsystem 708 may be embodied as, or otherwise include,memory controller hubs, input/output control hubs, integrated sensorhubs, firmware devices, communication links (e.g., point-to-point links,bus links, wires, cables, light guides, printed circuit board traces,etc.), and/or other components and subsystems to facilitate theinput/output operations. In some examples, the I/O subsystem 708 mayform a portion of a system-on-a-chip (SoC) and be incorporated, alongwith one or more of the processor 704, the memory 706, and othercomponents of the compute circuitry 702, into the compute circuitry 702.

The one or more illustrative data storage devices 710 may be embodied asany type of devices configured for short-term or long-term storage ofdata such as, for example, memory devices and circuits, memory cards,hard disk drives, solid-state drives, or other data storage devices.Individual data storage devices 710 may include a system partition thatstores data and firmware code for the data storage device 710.Individual data storage devices 710 may also include one or moreoperating system partitions that store data files and executables foroperating systems depending on, for example, the type of compute node700.

The communication circuitry 712 may be embodied as any communicationcircuit, device, or collection thereof, capable of enablingcommunications over a network between the compute circuitry 702 andanother compute device (e.g., an edge gateway of an implementing edgecomputing system). The communication circuitry 712 may be configured touse any one or more communication technology (e.g., wired or wirelesscommunications) and associated protocols (e.g., a cellular networkingprotocol such a 3GPP 4G or 5G standard, a wireless local area networkprotocol such as IEEE 802.11/Wi-Fi®, a wireless wide area networkprotocol, Ethernet, Bluetooth®, Bluetooth Low Energy, a IoT protocolsuch as IEEE 802.15.4 or ZigBee®, low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) orlow-power wide-area (LPWA) protocols, etc.) to effect suchcommunication.

The illustrative communication circuitry 712 includes a networkinterface controller (NIC) 720, which may also be referred to as a hostfabric interface (HFI). The NIC 720 may be embodied as one or moreadd-in-boards, daughter cards, network interface cards, controllerchips, chipsets, or other devices that may be used by the compute node700 to connect with another compute device (e.g., an edge gateway node).In some examples, the NIC 720 may be embodied as part of asystem-on-a-chip (SoC) that includes one or more processors, or includedon a multichip package that also contains one or more processors. Insome examples, the NIC 720 may include a local processor (not shown)and/or a local memory (not shown) that are both local to the NIC 720. Insuch examples, the local processor of the NIC 720 may be capable ofperforming one or more of the functions of the compute circuitry 702described herein. Additionally, or alternatively, in such examples, thelocal memory of the NIC 720 may be integrated into one or morecomponents of the client compute node at the board level, socket level,chip level, and/or other levels.

Additionally, in some examples, a respective compute node 700 mayinclude one or more peripheral devices 714. Such peripheral devices 714may include any type of peripheral device found in a compute device orserver such as audio input devices, a display, other input/outputdevices, interface devices, and/or other peripheral devices, dependingon the particular type of the compute node 700. In further examples, thecompute node 700 may be embodied by a respective edge compute node(whether a client, gateway, or aggregation node) in an edge computingsystem or like forms of appliances, computers, subsystems, circuitry, orother components.

In a more detailed example, FIG. 7B illustrates a block diagram of anexample of components that may be present in an edge computing node 750for implementing the techniques (e.g., operations, processes, methods,and methodologies) described herein. This edge computing node 750provides a closer view of the respective components of node 700 whenimplemented as or as part of a computing device (e.g., as a mobiledevice, a base station, server, gateway, etc.). The edge computing node750 may include any combinations of the hardware or logical componentsreferenced herein, and it may include or couple with any device usablewith an edge communication network or a combination of such networks.The components may be implemented as integrated circuits (ICs), portionsthereof, discrete electronic devices, or other modules, instructionsets, programmable logic or algorithms, hardware, hardware accelerators,software, firmware, or a combination thereof adapted in the edgecomputing node 750, or as components otherwise incorporated within achassis of a larger system.

The edge computing device 750 may include processing circuitry in theform of a processor 752, which may be a microprocessor, a multi-coreprocessor, a multithreaded processor, an ultra-low voltage processor, anembedded processor, an xPU/DPU/IPU/NPU, special purpose processing unit,specialized processing unit, or other known processing elements. Theprocessor 752 may be a part of a system on a chip (SoC) in which theprocessor 752 and other components are formed into a single integratedcircuit, or a single package, such as the Edison™ or Galileo™ SoC boardsfrom Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, Calif. As an example, the processor752 may include an Intel® Architecture Core™ based CPU processor, suchas a Quark™, an Atom™, an i3, an i5, an i7, an i9, or an MCU-classprocessor, or another such processor available from Intel®. However, anynumber other processors may be used, such as available from AdvancedMicro Devices. Inc. (AMD®) of Sunnyvale, Calif. a MIPS®-based designfrom MIPS Technologies, Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif., an ARM®-based designlicensed from ARM Holdings, Ltd. or a customer thereof, or theirlicensees or adopters. The processors may include units such as anA5-A13 processor from Apple® Inc., a Snapdragon™ processor fromQualcomm® Technologies, Inc., or an OMAP™ processor from TexasInstruments. Inc. The processor 752 and accompanying circuitry may beprovided in a single socket form factor, multiple socket form factor, ora variety of other formats, including in limited hardware configurationsor configurations that include fewer than all elements shown in FIG. 7B.

The processor 752 may communicate with a system memory 754 over aninterconnect 756 (e.g., a bus). Any number of memory devices may be usedto provide for a given amount of system memory. As examples, the memory754 may be random access memory (RAM) in accordance with a JointElectron Devices Engineering Council (JEDEC) design such as the DDR ormobile DDR standards (e.g., LPDDR. LPDDR2, LPDDR3, or LPDDR4). Inparticular examples, a memory component may comply with a DRAM standardpromulgated by JEDEC, such as JESD79F for DDR SDRAM, JESD79-2F for DDR2SDRAM, JESD79-3F for DDR3 SDRAM. JESD79-4A for DDR4 SDRAM. JESD209 forLow Power DDR (LPDDR). JESD209-2 for LPDDR2, JESD209-3 for LPDDR3, andJESD209-4 for LPDDR4. Such standards (and similar standards) may bereferred to as DDR-based standards and communication interfaces of thestorage devices that implement such standards may be referred to asDDR-based interfaces. In various implementations, the individual memorydevices may be of any number of different package types such as singledie package (SDP), dual die package (DDP) or quad die package (Q17P).These devices, in some examples, may be directly soldered onto amotherboard to provide a lower profile solution, while in other examplesthe devices are configured as one or more memory modules that in turncouple to the motherboard by a given connector. Any number of othermemory implementations may be used, such as other types of memorymodules. e.g., dual inline memory modules (DIMMs) of different varietiesincluding but not limited to microDIMMs or MiniDIMMs.

To provide for persistent storage of information such as data,applications, operating systems and so forth, a storage 758 may alsocouple to the processor 752 via the interconnect 756. In an example, thestorage 758 may be implemented via a solid-state disk drive (SSDD).Other devices that may be used for the storage 758 include flash memorycards, such as Secure Digital (SD) cards, microSD cards, eXtreme Digital(XD) picture cards, and the like, and Universal Serial Bus (USB) flashdrives. In an example, the memory device may be or may include memorydevices that use chalcogenide glass, multi-threshold level NAND flashmemory, NOR flash memory, single or multi-level Phase Change Memory(PCM), a resistive memory, nanowire memory, ferroelectric transistorrandom access memory (FeTRAM), anti-ferroelectric memory,magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) memory that incorporatesmemristor technology, resistive memory including the metal oxide base,the oxygen vacancy base and the conductive bridge Random Access Memory(CB-RAM), or spin transfer torque (STT)-MRAM, a spintronic magneticjunction memory based device, a magnetic tunneling junction (MTJ) baseddevice, a DW (Domain Wall) and SOT (Spin Orbit Transfer) based device, athyristor based memory device, or a combination of any of the above, orother memory.

In low power implementations, the storage 758 may be on-die memory orregisters associated with the processor 752. However, in some examples,the storage 758 may be implemented using a micro hard disk drive (HDD).Further, any number of new technologies may be used for the storage 758in addition to, or instead of, the technologies described, suchresistance change memories, phase change memories, holographic memories,or chemical memories, among others.

The components may communicate over the interconnect 756. Theinterconnect 756 may include any number of technologies, includingindustry standard architecture (ISA), extended ISA (EISA), peripheralcomponent interconnect (PCI), peripheral component interconnect extended(PCIx). PCI express (PCIe), or any number of other technologies. Theinterconnect 756 may be a proprietary bus, for example, used in an SoCbased system. Other bus systems may be included, such as anInter-Integrated Circuit (I2C) interface, a Serial Peripheral Interface(SPI) interface, point to point interfaces, and a power bus, amongothers.

The interconnect 756 may couple the processor 752 to a transceiver 766,for communications with the connected edge devices 762. The transceiver766 may use any number of frequencies and protocols, such as 2.4Gigahertz (GHz) transmissions under the IEEE 802.15.4 standard, usingthe Bluetooth® low energy (BLE) standard, as defined by the Bluetooth®Special Interest Group, or the ZigBee® standard, among others. Anynumber of radios, configured for a particular wireless communicationprotocol, may be used for the connections to the connected edge devices762. For example, a wireless local area network (WLAN) unit may be usedto implement Wi-Fi® communications in accordance with the Institute ofElectrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standard. Inaddition, wireless wide area communications, e.g., according to acellular or other wireless wide area protocol, may occur via a wirelesswide area network (WWAN) unit.

The wireless network transceiver 766 (or multiple transceivers) maycommunicate using multiple standards or radios for communications at adifferent range. For example, the edge computing node 750 maycommunicate with close devices, e.g., within about 10 meters, using alocal transceiver based on Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), or another lowpower radio, to save power. More distant connected edge devices 762,e.g., within about 50 meters, may be reached over ZigBee® or otherintermediate power radios. Both communications techniques may take placeover a single radio at different power levels or may take place overseparate transceivers, for example, a local transceiver using BLE and aseparate mesh transceiver using ZigBee®.

A wireless network transceiver 766 (e.g., a radio transceiver) may beincluded to communicate with devices or services in the edge cloud 795via local or wide area network protocols. The wireless networktransceiver 766 may be a low-power wide-area (LPWA) transceiver thatfollows the IEEE 802.15.4, or IEEE 802.15.4g standards, among others.The edge computing node 750 may communicate over a wide area usingLoRaWAN™ (Long Range Wide Area Network) developed by Semtech and theLoRa Alliance. The techniques described herein are not limited to thesetechnologies but may be used with any number of other cloud transceiversthat implement long range, low bandwidth communications, such as Sigfox,and other technologies. Further, other communications techniques, suchas time-slotted channel hopping, described in the IEEE 802.15.4especification may be used.

Any number of other radio communications and protocols may be used inaddition to the systems mentioned for the wireless network transceiver766, as described herein. For example, the transceiver 766 may include acellular transceiver that uses spread spectrum (SPA/SAS) communicationsfor implementing high-speed communications. Further, any number of otherprotocols may be used, such as Wi-Fi® networks for medium speedcommunications and provision of network communications. The transceiver766 may include radios that are compatible with any number of 3GPP(Third Generation Partnership Project) specifications, such as Long TermEvolution (LTE) and 5th Generation (5G) communication systems, discussedin further detail at the end of the present disclosure. A networkinterface controller (NIC) 768 may be included to provide a wiredcommunication to nodes of the edge cloud 795 or to other devices, suchas the connected edge devices 762 (e.g., operating in a mesh). The wiredcommunication may provide an Ethernet connection or may be based onother types of networks, such as Controller Area Network (CAN), LocalInterconnect Network (LIN), DeviceNet, ControlNet, Data Highway+,PROFIBUS, or PROFINET, among many others. An additional NIC 768 may beincluded to enable connecting to a second network, for example, a firstNIC 768 providing communications to the cloud over Ethernet, and asecond NIC 768 providing communications to other devices over anothertype of network.

Given the variety of types of applicable communications from the deviceto another component or network, applicable communications circuitryused by the device may include or be embodied by any one or more ofcomponents 764, 766, 768, or 770. Accordingly, in various examples,applicable means for communicating (e.g., receiving, transmitting, etc.)may be embodied by such communications circuitry.

The edge computing node 750 may include or be coupled to accelerationcircuitry 764, which may be embodied by one or more artificialintelligence (AI) accelerators, a neural compute stick, neuromorphichardware, an FPGA, an arrangement of GPUs, an arrangement ofxPUs/DPUs/IPU/NPUs, one or more SoCs, one or more CPUs, one or moredigital signal processors, dedicated ASICs, or other forms ofspecialized processors or circuitry designed to accomplish one or morespecialized tasks. These tasks may include AI processing (includingmachine learning, training, inferencing, and classification operations),visual data processing, network data processing, object detection, ruleanalysis, or the like. These tasks also may include the specific edgecomputing tasks for service management and service operations discussedelsewhere in this document.

The interconnect 756 may couple the processor 752 to a sensor hub orexternal interface 770 that is used to connect additional devices orsubsystems. The devices may include sensors 772, such as accelerometers,level sensors, flow sensors, optical light sensors, camera sensors,temperature sensors, global navigation system (e.g., GPS) sensors,pressure sensors, barometric pressure sensors, and the like. The hub orinterface 770 further may be used to connect the edge computing node 750to actuators 774, such as power switches, valve actuators, an audiblesound generator, a visual warning device, and the like.

In some optional examples, various input/output (I/O) devices may bepresent within or connected to, the edge computing node 750. Forexample, a display or other output device 784 may be included to showinformation, such as sensor readings or actuator position. An inputdevice 786, such as a touch screen or keypad may be included to acceptinput. An output device 784 may include any number of forms of audio orvisual display, including simple visual outputs such as binary statusindicators (e.g., light-emitting diodes (LEDs)) and multi-charactervisual outputs, or more complex outputs such as display screens (e.g.,liquid crystal display (LCD) screens), with the output of characters,graphics, multimedia objects, and the like being generated or producedfrom the operation of the edge computing node 750. A display or consolehardware, in the context of the present system, may be used to provideoutput and receive input of an edge computing system; to managecomponents or services of an edge computing system; identify a state ofan edge computing component or service; or to conduct any other numberof management or administration functions or service use cases.

A battery 776 may power the edge computing node 750, although, inexamples in which the edge computing node 750 is mounted in a fixedlocation, it may have a power supply coupled to an electrical grid, orthe battery may be used as a backup or for temporary capabilities. Thebattery 776 may be a lithium ion battery, or a metal-air battery, suchas a zinc-air battery, an aluminum-air battery, a lithium-air battery,and the like.

A battery monitor/charger 778 may be included in the edge computing node750 to track the state of charge (SoCh) of the battery 776, if included.The battery monitor/charger 778 may be used to monitor other parametersof the battery 776 to provide failure predictions, such as the state ofhealth (SoH) and the state of function (SoF) of the battery 776. Thebattery monitor/charger 778 may include a battery monitoring integratedcircuit, such as an LTC4020 or an LTC2990 from Linear Technologies, anADT7488A from ON Semiconductor of Phoenix Ariz., or an IC from theUCD90xxx family from Texas Instruments of Dallas, Tex. The batterymonitor/charger 778 may communicate the information on the battery 776to the processor 752 over the interconnect 756. The batterymonitor/charger 778 may also include an analog-to-digital (ADC)converter that enables the processor 752 to directly monitor the voltageof the battery 776 or the current flow from the battery 776. The batteryparameters may be used to determine actions that the edge computing node750 may perform, such as transmission frequency, mesh network operation,sensing frequency, and the like.

A power block 780, or other power supply coupled to a grid, may becoupled with the battery monitor/charger 778 to charge the battery 776.In some examples, the power block 780 may be replaced with a wirelesspower receiver to obtain the power wirelessly, for example, through aloop antenna in the edge computing node 750. A wireless battery chargingcircuit, such as an LTC4020 chip from Linear Technologies of Milpitas,Calif., among others, may be included in the battery monitor/charger778. The specific charging circuits may be selected based on the size ofthe battery 776, and thus, the current required. The charging may beperformed using the Airfuel standard promulgated by the AirfuelAlliance, the Qi wireless charging standard promulgated by the WirelessPower Consortium, or the Rezence charging standard, promulgated by theAlliance for Wireless Power, among others.

The storage 758 may include instructions 782 in the form of software,firmware, or hardware commands to implement the techniques describedherein. Although such instructions 782 are shown as code blocks includedin the memory 754 and the storage 758, it may be understood that any ofthe code blocks may be replaced with hardwired circuits, for example,built into an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC).

In an example, the instructions 782 provided via the memory 754, thestorage 758, or the processor 752 may be embodied as a non-transitory,machine-readable medium 760 including code to direct the processor 752to perform electronic operations in the edge computing node 750. Theprocessor 752 may access the non-transitory, machine-readable medium 760over the interconnect 756. For instance, the non-transitory,machine-readable medium 760 may be embodied by devices described for thestorage 758 or may include specific storage units such as optical disks,flash drives, or any number of other hardware devices. Thenon-transitory, machine-readable medium 760 may include instructions todirect the processor 752 to perform a specific sequence or flow ofactions, for example, as described with respect to the flowchart(s) andblock diagram(s) of operations and functionality depicted above. As usedherein, the terms “machine-readable medium” and “computer-readablemedium” are interchangeable.

Also in a specific example, the instructions 782 on the processor 752(separately, or in combination with the instructions 782 of the machinereadable medium 760) may configure execution or operation of a trustedexecution environment (TEE) 790. In an example, the TEE 790 operates asa protected area accessible to the processor 752 for secure execution ofinstructions and secure access to data. Various implementations of theTEE 790, and an accompanying secure area in the processor 752 or thememory 754 may be provided, for instance, through use of Intel® SoftwareGuard Extensions (SGX) or ARM® TrustZone® hardware security extensions,Intel® Management Engine (ME), or Intel® Converged SecurityManageability Engine (CSME). Other aspects of security hardening,hardware roots-of-trust, and trusted or protected operations may beimplemented in the device 750 through the TEE 790 and the processor 752.

In further examples, a machine-readable medium also includes anytangible medium that is capable of storing, encoding or carryinginstructions for execution by a machine and that cause the machine toperform any one or more of the methodologies of the present disclosureor that is capable of storing, encoding or carrying data structuresutilized by or associated with such instructions. A “machine-readablemedium” thus may include but is not limited to, solid-state memories,and optical and magnetic media. Specific examples of machine-readablemedia include non-volatile memory, including but not limited to, by wayof example, semiconductor memory devices (e.g., electricallyprogrammable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasableprogrammable read-only memory (EEPROM)) and flash memory devices;magnetic disks such as internal hard disks and removable disks;magneto-optical disks; and CD-ROM and DVD-ROM disks. The instructionsembodied by a machine-readable medium may further be transmitted orreceived over a communications network using a transmission medium via anetwork interface device utilizing any one of a number of transferprotocols (e.g., Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)).

A machine-readable medium may be provided by a storage device or otherapparatus which is capable of hosting data in a non-transitory format.In an example, information stored or otherwise provided on amachine-readable medium may be representative of instructions, such asinstructions themselves or a format from which the instructions may bederived. This format from which the instructions may be derived mayinclude source code, encoded instructions (e.g., in compressed orencrypted form), packaged instructions (e.g., split into multiplepackages), or the like. The information representative of theinstructions in the machine-readable medium may be processed byprocessing circuitry into the instructions to implement any of theoperations discussed herein. For example, deriving the instructions fromthe information (e.g., processing by the processing circuitry) mayinclude: compiling (e.g., from source code, object code, etc.),interpreting, loading, organizing (e.g., dynamically or staticallylinking), encoding, decoding, encrypting, unencrypting, packaging,unpackaging, or otherwise manipulating the information into theinstructions.

In an example, the derivation of the instructions may include assembly,compilation, or interpretation of the information (e.g., by theprocessing circuitry) to create the instructions from some intermediateor preprocessed format provided by the machine-readable medium. Theinformation, when provided in multiple parts, may be combined, unpacked,and modified to create the instructions. For example, the informationmay be in multiple compressed source code packages (or object code, orbinary executable code, etc.) on one or several remote servers. Thesource code packages may be encrypted when in transit over a network anddecrypted, uncompressed, assembled (e.g., linked) if necessary, andcompiled or interpreted (e.g., into a library, stand-alone executable,etc.) at a local machine, and executed by the local machine.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example domain topology for respectiveinternet-of-things (IoT) networks coupled through links to respectivegateways. The internet of things (IoT) is a concept in which a largenumber of computing devices are interconnected to each other and to theInternet to provide functionality and data acquisition at very lowlevels. Thus, as used herein, an IoT device may include a semiautonomousdevice performing a function, such as sensing or control, among others,in communication with other IoT devices and a wider network, such as theInternet.

Often, IoT devices are limited in memory, size, or functionality,allowing larger numbers to be deployed for a similar cost to smallernumbers of larger devices. However, an IoT device may be a smart phone,laptop, tablet, or PC, or other larger device. Further, an IoT devicemay be a virtual device, such as an application on a smart phone orother computing device. IoT devices may include IoT gateways, used tocouple IoT devices to other IoT devices and to cloud applications, fordata storage, process control, and the like.

Networks of IoT devices may include commercial and home automationdevices, such as water distribution systems, electric power distributionsystems, pipeline control systems, plant control systems, lightswitches, thermostats, locks, cameras, alarms, motion sensors, and thelike. The IoT devices may be accessible through remote computers,servers, and other systems, for example, to control systems or accessdata.

The future growth of the Internet and like networks may involve verylarge numbers of IoT devices. Accordingly, in the context of thetechniques discussed herein, a number of innovations for such futurenetworking will address the need for all these layers to growunhindered, to discover and make accessible connected resources, and tosupport the ability to hide and compartmentalize connected resources.Any number of network protocols and communications standards may beused, wherein each protocol and standard is designed to address specificobjectives. Further, the protocols are part of the fabric supportinghuman accessible services that operate regardless of location, time orspace. The innovations include service delivery and associatedinfrastructure, such as hardware and software; security enhancements;and the provision of services based on Quality of Service (QoS) termsspecified in service level and service delivery agreements. As will beunderstood, the use of IoT devices and networks, such as thoseintroduced in FIGS. 8 and 9, present a number of new challenges in aheterogeneous network of connectivity comprising a combination of wiredand wireless technologies.

FIG. 8 specifically provides a simplified drawing of a domain topologythat may be used for a number of internet-of-things (IoT) networkscomprising IoT devices 804, with the IoT networks 856, 858, 860, 862,coupled through backbone links 802 to respective gateways 854. Forexample, a number of IoT devices 804 may communicate with a gateway 854,and with each other through the gateway 854. To simplify the drawing,not every IoT device 804, or communications link (e.g., link 816, 822,828, or 832) is labeled. The backbone links 802 may include any numberof wired or wireless technologies, including optical networks, and maybe part of a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), or theInternet. Additionally, such communication links facilitate opticalsignal paths among both IoT devices 804 and gateways 854, including theuse of MUXing/deMUXing components that facilitate interconnection of thevarious devices.

The network topology may include any number of types of IoT networks,such as a mesh network provided with the network 856 using Bluetooth lowenergy (BLE) links 822. Other types of IoT networks that may be presentinclude a wireless local area network (WLAN) network 858 used tocommunicate with IoT devices 804 through IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi®) links 828,a cellular network 860 used to communicate with IoT devices 804 throughan LTE/LTE-A (4G) or 5G cellular network, and a low-power wide area(LPWA) network 862, for example, a LPWA network compatible with theLoRaWan specification promulgated by the LoRa alliance, or a IPv6 overLow Power Wide-Area Networks (LPWAN) network compatible with aspecification promulgated by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).Further, the respective IoT networks may communicate with an outsidenetwork provider (e.g., a tier 2 or tier 3 provider) using any number ofcommunications links, such as an LTE cellular link, an LPWA link, or alink based on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard, such as Zigbee®. Therespective IoT networks may also operate with use of a variety ofnetwork and internet application protocols such as ConstrainedApplication Protocol (CoAP). The respective IoT networks may also beintegrated with coordinator devices that provide a chain of links thatforms cluster tree of linked devices and networks.

Each of these IoT networks may provide opportunities for new technicalfeatures, such as those as described herein. The improved technologiesand networks may enable the exponential growth of devices and networks,including the use of IoT networks into “fog” devices or integrated into“Edge” computing systems. As the use of such improved technologiesgrows, the IoT networks may be developed for self-management, functionalevolution, and collaboration, without needing direct human intervention.The improved technologies may even enable IoT networks to functionwithout centralized controlled systems. Accordingly, the improvedtechnologies described herein may be used to automate and enhancenetwork management and operation functions far beyond currentimplementations.

In an example, communications between IoT devices 804, such as over thebackbone links 802, may be protected by a decentralized system forauthentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA). In a decentralizedAAA system, distributed payment, credit, audit, authorization, andauthentication systems may be implemented across interconnectedheterogeneous network infrastructure. This allows systems and networksto move towards autonomous operations. In these types of autonomousoperations, machines may even contract for human resources and negotiatepartnerships with other machine networks. This may allow the achievementof mutual objectives and balanced service delivery against outlined,planned service level agreements as well as achieve solutions thatprovide metering, measurements, traceability, and trackability. Thecreation of new supply chain structures and methods may enable amultitude of services to be created, mined for value, and collapsedwithout any human involvement.

Such IoT networks may be further enhanced by the integration of sensingtechnologies, such as sound, light, electronic traffic, facial andpattern recognition, smell, vibration, into the autonomous organizationsamong the IoT devices. The integration of sensory systems may allowsystematic and autonomous communication and coordination of servicedelivery against contractual service objectives, orchestration andquality of service (QoS) based swarming and fusion of resources. Some ofthe individual examples of network-based resource processing include thefollowing.

The mesh network 856, for instance, may be enhanced by systems thatperform inline data-to-information transforms. For example, self-formingchains of processing resources comprising a multi-link network maydistribute the transformation of raw data to information in an efficientmanner, and the ability to differentiate between assets and resourcesand the associated management of each. Furthermore, the propercomponents of infrastructure and resource based trust and serviceindices may be inserted to improve the data integrity, quality,assurance and deliver a metric of data confidence.

The WLAN network 858, for instance, may use systems that performstandards conversion to provide multi-standard connectivity, enablingIoT devices 804 using different protocols to communicate. Furthersystems may provide seamless interconnectivity across a multi-standardinfrastructure comprising visible Internet resources and hidden Internetresources.

Communications in the cellular network 860, for instance, may beenhanced by systems that offload data, extend communications to moreremote devices, or both. The LPWA network 862 may include systems thatperform non-Internet protocol (IP) to IP interconnections, addressing,and routing. Further, each of the IoT devices 804 may include theappropriate transceiver for wide area communications with that device.Further, each IoT device 804 may include other transceivers forcommunications using additional protocols and frequencies. This isdiscussed further with respect to the communication environment andhardware of an IoT processing device depicted in FIG. 10.

Finally, clusters of IoT devices may be equipped to communicate withother IoT devices as well as with a cloud network. This may allow theIoT devices to form an ad-hoc network between the devices, allowing themto function as a single device, which may be termed a fog device, fogplatform, or fog network. This configuration is discussed further withrespect to FIG. 9 below.

FIG. 9 illustrates a cloud computing network in communication with amesh network of IoT devices (devices 902) operating as a fog platform ina networked scenario. The mesh network of IoT devices may be termed afog network 920, established from a network of devices operating at theEdge of the cloud 900. To simplify the diagram, not every IoT device 902is labeled.

The fog network 920 may be considered to be a massively interconnectednetwork wherein a number of IoT devices 902 are in communications witheach other, for example, by radio links 922. The fog network 920 mayestablish a horizontal, physical, or virtual resource platform that canbe considered to reside between IoT Edge devices and cloud or datacenters. A fog network, in some examples, may supportvertically-isolated, latency-sensitive applications through layered,federated, or distributed computing, storage, and network connectivityoperations. However, a fog network may also be used to distributeresources and services at and among the Edge and the cloud. Thus,references in the present document to the “Edge”, “fog”, and “cloud” arenot necessarily discrete or exclusive of one another.

As an example, the fog network 920 may be facilitated using aninterconnect specification released by the Open Connectivity Foundation™(OCF). This standard allows devices to discover each other and establishcommunications for interconnects. Other interconnection protocols mayalso be used, including, for example, the optimized link state routing(OLSR) Protocol, the better approach to mobile ad-hoc networking(B.A.T.M.A.N.) routing protocol, or the OMA Lightweight M2M (LWM2M)protocol, among others.

Three types of IoT devices 902 are shown in this example, gateways 904,data aggregators 926, and sensors 928, although any combinations of IoTdevices 902 and functionality may be used. The gateways 904 may be Edgedevices that provide communications between the cloud 900 and the fognetwork 920, and may also provide the backend process function for dataobtained from sensors 928, such as motion data, flow data, temperaturedata, and the like. The data aggregators 926 may collect data from anynumber of the sensors 928, and perform the back-end processing functionfor the analysis. The results, raw data, or both may be passed along tothe cloud 900 through the gateways 904. The sensors 928 may be full IoTdevices 902, for example, capable of both collecting data and processingthe data. In some cases, the sensors 928 may be more limited infunctionality, for example, collecting the data and allowing the dataaggregators 926 or gateways 904 to process the data.

Communications from any IoT device 902 may be passed along a convenientpath between any of the IoT devices 902 to reach the gateways 904. Inthese networks, the number of interconnections provide substantialredundancy, allowing communications to be maintained, even with the lossof a number of IoT devices 902. Further, the use of a mesh network mayallow IoT devices 902 that are very low power or located at a distancefrom infrastructure to be used, as the range to connect to another IoTdevice 902 may be much less than the range to connect to the gateways904.

The fog network 920 provided from these IoT devices 902 may be presentedto devices in the cloud 900, such as a server 906, as a single devicelocated at the Edge of the cloud 900, e.g., a fog network operating as adevice or platform. In this example, the alerts coming from the fogplatform may be sent without being identified as coming from a specificIoT device 902 within the fog network 920. In this fashion, the fognetwork 920 may be considered a distributed platform that providescomputing and storage resources to perform processing or data-intensivetasks such as data analytics, data aggregation, and machine-learning,among others.

In some examples, the IoT devices 902 may be configured using animperative programming style, e.g., with each IoT device 902 having aspecific function and communication partners. However, the IoT devices902 forming the fog platform may be configured in a declarativeprogramming style, enabling the IoT devices 902 to reconfigure theiroperations and communications, such as to determine needed resources inresponse to conditions, queries, and device failures. As an example, aquery from a user located at a server 906 about the operations of asubset of equipment monitored by the IoT devices 902 may result in thefog network 920 device the IoT devices 902, such as particular sensors928, needed to answer the query. The data from these sensors 928 maythen be aggregated and analyzed by any combination of the sensors 928,data aggregators 926, or gateways 904, before being sent on by the fognetwork 920 to the server 906 to answer the query. In this example, IoTdevices 902 in the fog network 920 may select the sensors 928 used basedon the query, such as adding data from flow sensors or temperaturesensors. Further, if some of the IoT devices 902 are not operational,other IoT devices 902 in the fog network 920 may provide analogous data,if available.

In other examples, the operations and functionality described herein maybe embodied by an IoT or Edge compute device in the example form of anelectronic processing system, within which a set or sequence ofinstructions may be executed to cause the electronic processing systemto perform any one of the methodologies discussed herein, according toan example embodiment. The device may be an IoT device or an IoTgateway, including a machine embodied by aspects of a personal computer(PC), a tablet PC, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobiletelephone or smartphone, or any machine capable of executinginstructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be takenby that machine.

Further, while only a single machine may be depicted and referenced inthe examples above, such machine shall also be taken to include anycollection of machines that individually or jointly execute a set (ormultiple sets) of instructions to perform any one or more of themethodologies discussed herein. Further, these and like examples to aprocessor-based system shall be taken to include any set of one or moremachines that are controlled by or operated by a processor, set ofprocessors, or processing circuitry (e.g., a computer) to individuallyor jointly execute instructions to perform any one or more of themethodologies discussed herein. Accordingly, in various examples,applicable means for processing (e.g., processing, controlling,generating, evaluating, etc.) may be embodied by such processingcircuitry.

FIG. 10 illustrates a drawing of a cloud computing network, or cloud1000, in communication with a number of Internet of Things (IoT)devices. The cloud 1000 may represent the Internet, or may be a localarea network (LAN), or a wide area network (WAN), such as a proprietarynetwork for a company. The IoT devices may include any number ofdifferent types of devices, grouped in various combinations. Forexample, a traffic control group 1006 may include IoT devices alongstreets in a city. These IoT devices may include stoplights, trafficflow monitors, cameras, weather sensors, and the like. The trafficcontrol group 1006, or other subgroups, may be in communication with thecloud 1000 through wired or wireless links 1008, such as LPWA links, andthe like. Further, a wired or wireless sub-network 1012 may allow theIoT devices to communicate with each other, such as through a local areanetwork, a wireless local area network, and the like. The IoT devicesmay use another device, such as a gateway 1010 or 1028 to communicatewith remote locations such as the cloud 1000; the IoT devices may alsouse one or more servers 1030 to facilitate communication with the cloud1000 or with the gateway 1010. For example, the one or more servers 1030may operate as an intermediate network node to support a local Edgecloud or fog implementation among a local area network. Further, thegateway 1028 that is depicted may operate in a cloud-to-gateway-to-manyEdge devices configuration, such as with the various IoT devices 1014,1020, 1024 being constrained or dynamic to an assignment and use ofresources in the cloud 1000.

Other example groups of IoT devices may include remote weather stations1014, local information terminals 1016, alarm systems 1018, automatedteller machines 1020, alarm panels 1022, or moving vehicles, such asemergency vehicles 1024 or other vehicles 1026, among many others. Eachof these IoT devices may be in communication with other IoT devices,with servers 1004, with another IoT fog device or system (not shown, butdepicted in FIG. 9), or a combination therein. The groups of IoT devicesmay be deployed in various residential, commercial, and industrialsettings (including in both private or public environments).

As may be seen from FIG. 10, a large number of IoT devices may becommunicating through the cloud 1000. This may allow different IoTdevices to request or provide information to other devices autonomously.For example, a group of IoT devices (e.g., the traffic control group1006) may request a current weather forecast from a group of remoteweather stations 1014, which may provide the forecast without humanintervention. Further, an emergency vehicle 1024 may be alerted by anautomated teller machine 1020 that a burglary is in progress. As theemergency vehicle 1024 proceeds towards the automated teller machine1020, it may access the traffic control group 1006 to request clearanceto the location, for example, by lights turning red to block crosstraffic at an intersection in sufficient time for the emergency vehicle1024 to have unimpeded access to the intersection.

Clusters of IoT devices, such as the remote weather stations 1014 or thetraffic control group 1006, may be equipped to communicate with otherIoT devices as well as with the cloud 1000. This may allow the IoTdevices to form an ad-hoc network between the devices, allowing them tofunction as a single device, which may be termed a fog device or system(e.g., as described above with reference to FIG. 9).

As discussed above, the systems and methods described herein provide fornetwork supported low latency security-based orchestration. The systemsand methods described herein include a new technique to assure securityrequirements to a function request as specified or encoded by the clientwithout causing a visible overhead. In this technique, theinfrastructure (e.g., an edge device, an orchestrator, a switch, etc.)may be aware of functions that a vendor solution provider makesavailable in the platforms/edges. The security methods offered by thevendors may be identified (e.g., stored in a table, queried, etc.),including security methods that a vendor may be providing on-demand uponfunction request. The client may specify one or more of the vendors (orother constraints) and the required security methods, along with eachfunction request. In some examples, performance requirements from aclient side may be included with a list of vendors and required securitymethods. In this example, performance of a function implemented bydifferent vendors may vary and a tradeoff between security andperformance exists.

The client may supplement a function request with a preamble code (e.g.,code in a prologue, in a header in a request, in a trailer of a request,in a packet, etc., with or without changes or updates to the processingof current protocol headers). The preamble code may be executed at agateway on a compute device such as an FPGA or other type ofaccelerator. The preamble may be executed before other code of a packet,binary, data structure, or the like. The preamble code may use an APIexposed by the gateway to access a list of vendors and security methodsassociated with each available function or service that is relevant forthe request.

As the result of the preamble code's execution, a list of matchingfunction services to which the client's request may be mapped to aregenerated. By allowing a client to specify these security requirementsand services and executing the preamble, the client has more controldirectly, without adding overhead either to the client or to anyunnecessary orchestrator. The gateway may map the function request toone of the matching services. By providing the preamble code, the clientmay ensure that required checks on the vendors and security requirementsare performed, such as function version, security methods available,date of update etc. The requests may be applied on a request granularityflexibly. Clients may choose to specify a simple list of trusted vendorsand required security methods for a function request as parameters whensubmitting the request instead of a preamble code. The gateway may run adefault prologue code with these parameters and arrive at a matchinglist of FaaS services that may be mapped for the request. Security FaaSmay be considered in microservices forms on-boarded on-demand (e.g.,specific encryption algorithms, key certificates) in some examples.

In an example, applications on client devices that are running in cars,edge devices, phones, appliances, base station, etc., may use otherdevices to execute higher power, more compute, or specialized hardwarecompute elements. An edge appliance that offers compute to other devicesmay be unknown or untrusted by the client device. The edge appliance mayhave varying levels of security or security capabilities for differenthardware components, tasks, or clients. If security is not met for anapplication request, then the requestor may not want to use the edgeappliance.

A preamble sent by an application of a client device to an untrusteddevice may be executed via trusted domain execution (TDX). The TDX mayoperate within the CPU of the client device in a trusted domain, wherethe preamble may be executed without any exposure to the code (e.g., nohypervisor or OS can access the code).

When an application needs to execute code on a particular edge device,the application may provide a preamble that can run in the TDX. Thepreamble checks the hardware or edge appliance for security and computeelements (in some examples, both security and possibility for executingmay be checked, such as hardware, software needs). After verifying thatthe edge device may be trusted, the application may send a binary forexecution (or the preamble may be part of the binary, so it ‘sends’ fromthe TDX to outside the TDX for execution).

In an example, a component of a vehicle sends a request out to two basestations, receives attestation from each base station (or a firstattested base station), receives platform attestation (e.g., TPM, basedon firmware, hardware config, etc.), such as from an attestation server(e.g., an external attestation entity that verifies the platform isvalid). A signature from a third party server for example may be usedfor whether the base station has the preamble or BMC secure operationspace. When a base station does not support preamble execution, anotherbase station may be sent the request.

When a base station has the preamble capabilities, a small binaryincluding a preamble may be sent to the platform (e.g., the basestation). The small compute element may receive all the resourcesavailable to the platform (or all requested resources). The resources(e.g., memory, storage, accelerators, GPUs, etc.) may be received as alist, provided to the preamble executing in a trusted domain. Thepreamble may select the needed resources and request that each beattested. The preamble or the base station may reach out to anattestation server for validation of each resource.

When all resources are attested, the preamble may request that theplatform or base station compose those resources into a trusted domain,and instantiate services within the trusted domain and execute. Afterexecution, results may be sent back to the component of the vehicle.When resources are not available, another platform may receive therequest. When there are no resources available (e.g., not trusted,lacking security, or capabilities do not exist), then no execution ofservice within this platform may occur, and the component of the vehiclemay attempt in another platform. In another example, the component ofthe vehicle may send modified requirements (e.g., a request having lowersecurity requirements, which may be less accurate but include fewerpersonal details, and may be sufficient, but not a best-case scenariofor execution).

The component may have different security requirements for differentportions of an algorithm or compute task, or different implementationsof an algorithm, such as some with more relaxed security. In someexamples, security or execution requirements may vary based on hardwarerequirements or capabilities (e.g., platform lacks GPU, or has GPU butpossibly lacking enough security, switch to a different implementationof algorithm such as using hardware accelerator of the platform).Tradeoffs for security versus time may be managed by the requestorcomponent, and may be specified in the preamble (e.g., without need toreturn to the component). The specifications may be included in anservice-level agreement (SLA) in an example.

FIG. 11 illustrates a flow diagram showing security-based orchestrationusing a preamble according to an example. The flow diagram illustratesflow from a client device 1102 to a preamble execution 1104 on aplatform device 1106, and includes an attestation server 1108. FIG. 11provides a description of a flow that may be performed when executing apreamble in a secure domain 1104 of the platform device 1106. The flowstarts with the client device 1102 requesting to execute a service orfunction. The client device 1102 selects the platform 1106 that providespreamble-based last mile orchestration. Once selected, the client device1102 may forward the preamble and a service into the platform 1106. Theplatform 1106 may create or designate the secure domain 1104 forexecuting the preamble. The preamble is executed in the secure domain1104 (e.g. a secure enclave or any trusted execution environment, suchas in the Infrastructure Processing Unit (IPU) or Board ManagementController (BMC), FPGA, etc.). The preamble may iterate over thedifferent resources that the platform has and select the ones that arerequired based on the secure service requirements. After selectingresources, the preamble may perform resource attestation (e.g., using anexternal server, such as the attestation server 1108). When all theselected resources are validated and attested, the preamble may requestthat the CPU of the platform 1106 create a trusted domain with therequested resources to spawn the services for execution.

FIG. 12 illustrates an example architecture for security-basedorchestration using a preamble according to an example. The architectureincludes a platform 1206, which may communicate with an attestationserver 1208. The platform 1206 may include the PREAMBLE logic 1204,which is responsible for acting as a secure host or enclave for thepreamble. The preamble may use discovery logic to discover and attestthe resources available on the platform 1208. The PREAMBLE logic 1204may be inside the IPU. BMC, programmable NIC, etc., while being isolatedfrom the compute elements of the platform 1206, both for security of theplatform 1206 and for security of the preamble. The PREAMBLE logic 1204may include a preamble cache that may be used in order to implement asecure hierarchical cache across the edges to cache the preambles thatservices can use in a distributed manner. The example platform 1206shown in FIG. 12 includes a BMC for executing services via a trusteddomain. The BMC may obtain or store platform inventory of resources toprovide to the preamble on request, including security of the resources.

In an example, the PREAMBLE logic 1204 may include a bitstream to beexecuted in a FPGA. The preamble may implement a rule-based selection ofresources, with or without an, such as with a rule-based decision model.After the platform 1206 is attested as having the requested properties,the services may proceed in a trusted domain. The preamble may include adesign choice (e.g., as a trade-off between security control andlatency).

FIG. 13 illustrates a flow diagram showing security-based orchestrationincluding a set of rules associated with services according to anexample. The security-based orchestration in FIG. 13 includes furthersecurity options, and orchestration that may be performed without atrusted connection.

The flow diagram of FIG. 13 includes bring-in-your-own security methods(for “vendors”) and bring-your-own-CMP (e.g., not just security, but acloud management platform “CMP” vendor, for example, which may providesecurity, auditing, scaling, resiliency, optimization, scheduling,etc.). The techniques shown in FIG. 13 may be on-demand or based onuse-case or service. These techniques may be used with a pre-createdclient enclave at a gateway that is capable of providing an SGX or TDXTrusted Execution Environment (TEE). Instead of requiring that client'spreamble run at an FPGA or other programmable device, the preamble mayrun in a client confidential environment that is not dependent ontrusting any device.

The technique may include allowing the client confidential TEE tocomplete the linking with a CMP commissioned by a client. In an example,the term CMP may refer to a vendor who may act as a mutually trustedintermediary between the CSP/CoSP and the client or may act to provide avalue-added service to either or both the client or theinfrastructure/platform service provider. The CMP may provide in-bandsecurity services to the client flexibly according to a guidance and/ornegotiation protocol or API. Such an arrangement may provide the clientto use a multi-cloud CMP to split consumption across more than oneinfrastructure provider in a seamless manner, thus further bolsteringsecurity, resiliency, etc.

The flow discussed above related to FIG. 11 includes a description ofthe flow when the preamble is a single binary or algorithm. FIG. 13includes an expansion of that concept where the client may propose a setof rules that are binary or contingent (e.g., list of resources type,list of vendors etc.). Each rule may be associated to different binariesfor that service. Depending on the rule, a more or less sensitiveservice instance maybe executed.

To improve resiliency of the network. (e.g., when a device providing aservice or a network segment on the main path is experiencing issues),the client or the edge device on the network requesting the securityrequirements may pro-actively issue a function request with preamblecode on various paths. Using multiple paths ensures that when issuesarise, whether compute, memory or storage, or network related, thespecific client has a list of backup preamble code ready to use.

When the security requirement specified by the client (either aspreamble code or a list of trusted vendors and required security methodsfor a function) do not exactly match available FaaS services, theservice may still be provided. For example, when the client may specifya rule or reduced set of prioritized requirements (e.g., as a backup)such that the gateway may find a matching list in that case (e.g., atthe same device, or by sending to another device known to the gateway).In another example, the client may have exhaustive information aboutavailable FaaS services.

In an example, the client preamble code may specify securityrequirements and some performance requirements (e.g., where multipleimplementation of a function may be available from one or differentvendors). In some examples, an implementation provides a number ofsecurity guarantees but is less-performant compared to anotherimplementation providing a weaker security guarantee. In these examples,the APIs available on the gateway may be extended to provide someperformance profile of the available functions (e.g., latency/speed fora given resource allocation). When the client preamble code may use amapping function to best match the client's requirement with theavailable implementations, or P4-based language, which can beimplemented on FPGA in efficient manner.

In an example, an FPGA may be used as a side-car where resiliencyfunctions are applied (either before or after) as needed to ensureworkload executes to completion. The ‘resiliency side-car’ conceptcreates a control-channel capability at the workload or applicationlayer (e.g., referring to ISO layers). FPGA may integrate with IPU/NPUto gain access to control functions, orchestration etc., from peercontrol-plane nodes. FPGA as control-plane side-car may specialize inaccelerated control functions that otherwise may be performed in a VMside-car. The FPGA may respond dynamically to resiliency recoverysituations where exposure to FAFO events may be mitigated viajust-in-time designs that are written to the FPGA.

FIG. 14 illustrates a flowchart showing a technique 1400 forsecurity-based orchestration using a preamble according to an example.The technique 1400 may be performed by a device in an edge network(e.g., in communication with one or more mobile devices, such as aphone, a vehicle, a tablet, etc.), such as a base station, a server, amobile device, an IoT device, or the like. The device may be a devicewith an unknown trust level to an edge device sending the deviceinformation. For example, the edge device may be a mobile device, avehicle, etc., which needs a particular service to execute, and requeststhat the device provide (or identify if it may provide) the service. Inthis example, the edge device may not necessarily trust or know a trustlevel of the device, and may treat it as untrusted initially. Other edgedevices may already know the trust level of the device in some examples.

The technique 1400 includes an operation 1402 to receive a binary at asecure environment of a device with an unknown trust level. The binarymay be received from a mobile device, such as a cell phone, a vehicle,etc. In some examples, the preamble is in a header of a packet, or in aheader packet of the binary. The device may be one of at least twodevices receiving the binary from an orchestration device.

The technique 1400 includes an operation 1404 to evaluate within thesecure environment, a preamble of the binary to determine a set ofsecurity requirements. Operation 1404 may include sequentiallydetermining whether a service of the device corresponding to each of theset of security requirements meets a respective security requirement.The set of security requirements may include at least two differentlevels of security for at least two respective services (e.g., a firstlevel of security requirement corresponding to a first compute need anda second level of security requirement corresponding to a second computeneed). In an example, evaluating the preamble includes evaluating a setof execution requirements, and wherein the instructions further causethe processing circuitry operating within the secure environment toperform operations including identifying the services based on both theexecution requirements and the security requirements.

The technique 1400 includes an operation 1406 to provide, to anattestation server, an indication of security parameters for services ofthe device corresponding to security requirements of the set of securityrequirements. The technique 1400 includes an operation 1408 to receive aconfirmation from the attestation server based on the indication. Thetechnique 1400 includes an operation 1410 to in response to receivingthe confirmation, provide a request to the device outside the secureenvironment to generate or retrieve a trusted domain including theservices. In an example, the attestation server may be a logical entitywith an orchestrator, a physical entity or both. The trusted domain maybe saved, such that it is accessible to the device later (e.g., to runthe same service for the same edge device), accessible to anothernetworked device (e.g., another device in a network of the device, whichmay rely on the trust established between the device and the edgedevice, to provide services for the edge device), or identifiable to theedge device (e.g., such that other service providing devices maydetermine if they meet the requirements of the trusted domain or mayimplement the trusted domain).

In an example, the set of security requirements include at least onecontingent security requirement, the contingent security requirementincluding a first requirement for a first level of security for aservice, and a second requirement for a second level of security for theservice requiring less security than the first level. In this example,when the first level of security is not met at the device, the technique1400 may include providing the indication of security parameters for theservices includes providing an indication of security parameterscorresponding to the second level of security. In an example, thetechnique 1400 may include executing the services within the trusteddomain using the binary.

In an example, the technique 1400 may include operations to evaluate asecond preamble of a second binary to determine a second set of securityrequirements and a second set of execution requirements, determine thata security requirement of the second set of security requirements or anexecution requirement of the second set of execution requirements cannotbe met at the device, and in response to the determination, provide anotification that the respective requirement cannot be met.

It should be understood that the functional units or capabilitiesdescribed in this specification may have been referred to or labeled ascomponents or modules, in order to more particularly emphasize theirimplementation independence. Such components may be embodied by anynumber of software or hardware forms. For example, a component or modulemay be implemented as a hardware circuit comprising customvery-large-scale integration (VLSI) circuits or gate arrays,off-the-shelf semiconductors such as logic chips, transistors, or otherdiscrete components. A component or module may also be implemented inprogrammable hardware devices such as field programmable gate arrays,programmable array logic, programmable logic devices, or the like.Components or modules may also be implemented in software for executionby various types of processors. An identified component or module ofexecutable code may, for instance, comprise one or more physical orlogical blocks of computer instructions, which may, for instance, beorganized as an object, procedure, or function. Nevertheless, theexecutables of an identified component or module need not be physicallylocated together but may comprise disparate instructions stored indifferent locations which, when joined logically together (e.g.,including over a wire, over a network, using one or more platforms,wirelessly, via a software component, or the like), comprise thecomponent or module and achieve the stated purpose for the component ormodule.

Indeed, a component or module of executable code may be a singleinstruction, or many instructions, and may even be distributed overseveral different code segments, among different programs, and acrossseveral memory devices or processing systems. In particular, someaspects of the described process (such as code rewriting and codeanalysis) may take place on a different processing system (e.g., in acomputer in a data center) than that in which the code is deployed(e.g., in a computer embedded in a sensor or robot). Similarly,operational data may be identified and illustrated herein withincomponents or modules and may be embodied in any suitable form andorganized within any suitable type of data structure. The operationaldata may be collected as a single data set or may be distributed overdifferent locations including over different storage devices, and mayexist, at least partially, merely as electronic signals on a system ornetwork. The components or modules may be passive or active, includingagents operable to perform desired functions.

Additional examples of the presently described method, system, anddevice embodiments include the following, non-limiting implementations.Each of the following non-limiting examples may stand on its own or maybe combined in any permutation or combination with any one or more ofthe other examples provided below or throughout the present disclosure.

Each of these non-limiting examples may stand on its own, or may becombined in various permutations or combinations with one or more of theother examples.

Example 1 is a device comprising: processing circuitry operating outsidea secure environment; processing circuitry operating within a secureenvironment; and memory including instructions for security-basedorchestration, which when executed by the processing circuitry operatingwithin the secure environment, causes the processing circuitry operatingwithin the secure environment to perform operations including:receiving, from an edge device, a binary file; evaluating a preamble ofthe binary file to determine a set of security requirements; providing,to an attestation server, an indication of security parameters forservices of the device corresponding to security requirements of the setof security requirements; receiving a confirmation from the attestationserver based on the indication; and in response to receiving theconfirmation, providing a request to the processing circuitry operatingoutside the secure environment to generate a trusted domain outside thesecure environment to execute the services.

In Example 2, the subject matter of Example 1 includes, whereinevaluating the preamble includes sequentially determining whether aservice of the device corresponding to each of the set of securityrequirements meets a respective security requirement.

In Example 3, the subject matter of Examples 1-2 includes, wherein theinstructions further cause the processing circuitry operating within thesecure environment to perform operations including executing theservices within the trusted domain using the binary file.

In Example 4, the subject matter of Examples 1-3 includes, wherein theset of security requirements include at least one contingent securityrequirement, the contingent security requirement including a firstrequirement for a first level of security for a service, and a secondrequirement for a second level of security for the service requiringless security than the first level.

In Example 5, the subject matter of Example 4 includes, wherein inresponse to the first level of security not being met at the device, theinstructions further cause the processing circuitry operating within thesecure environment to perform operations including providing theindication of security parameters for the services includes providing anindication of security parameters corresponding to the second level ofsecurity.

In Example 6, the subject matter of Examples 1-5 includes, wherein theset of security requirements include at least two different levels ofsecurity for at least two respective services.

In Example 7, the subject matter of Examples 1-6 includes, wherein theedge device is a vehicle.

In Example 8, the subject matter of Examples 1-7 includes, wherein thepreamble is in a header of a packet or in a header packet of the binaryfile.

In Example 9, the subject matter of Examples 1-8 includes, whereinevaluating the preamble includes evaluating a set of executionrequirements, and wherein the instructions further cause the processingcircuitry operating within the secure environment to perform operationsincluding identifying the services based on both the executionrequirements and the security requirements.

In Example 10, the subject matter of Examples 1-9 includes, wherein theinstructions further cause the processing circuitry operating within thesecure environment to perform operations including: evaluating a secondpreamble of a second binary file to determine a second set of securityrequirements and a second set of execution requirements; determiningthat a security requirement of the second set of security requirementsor an execution requirement of the second set of execution requirementscannot be met at the device; and in response to the determination,providing a notification that the respective requirement cannot be met.

In Example 11, the subject matter of Examples 1-10 includes, wherein thedevice is one of at least two devices receiving the binary file from anorchestration device.

In Example 12, the subject matter of Examples 1-11 includes, wherein thetrusted domain is stored and accessible across a network by anotherdevice.

Example 13 is an apparatus for security-based orchestration, theapparatus comprising: means for receiving, from an edge device, a binaryfile at a secure environment of the apparatus; means for evaluatingwithin the secure environment, a preamble of the binary file todetermine a set of security requirements; means for providing, to anattestation server, an indication of security parameters for services ofthe apparatus corresponding to security requirements of the set ofsecurity requirements; means for receiving a confirmation from theattestation server based on the indication; and in response to receivingthe confirmation, means for providing a request to the apparatus outsidethe secure environment to generate a trusted domain including theservices.

In Example 14, the subject matter of Example 13 includes, wherein themeans for evaluating the preamble include means for sequentiallydetermining whether a service of the apparatus corresponding to each ofthe set of security requirements meets a respective securityrequirement.

In Example 15, the subject matter of Examples 13-14 includes, means forexecuting the services within the trusted domain using the binary file.

Example 16 is a method for security-based orchestration, the methodcomprising: receiving, from an edge device, a binary file at a secureenvironment of a device; evaluating within the secure environment, apreamble of the binary file to determine a set of security requirements;providing, to an attestation server, an indication of securityparameters for services of the device corresponding to securityrequirements of the set of security requirements; receiving aconfirmation from the attestation server based on the indication; and inresponse to receiving the confirmation, providing a request to thedevice outside the secure environment to generate a trusted domainincluding the services.

In Example 17, the subject matter of Example 16 includes, wherein theset of security requirements include at least one contingent securityrequirement, the contingent security requirement including a firstrequirement for a first level of security for a service, and a secondrequirement for a second level of security for the service requiringless security than the first level.

In Example 18, the subject matter of Example 17 includes, wherein whenthe first level of security is not met at the device, providing theindication of security parameters for the services includes providing anindication of security parameters corresponding to the second level ofsecurity.

In Example 19, the subject matter of Examples 16-18 includes, whereinthe preamble is in a header of a packet or in a header packet of thebinary file.

In Example 20, the subject matter of Examples 16-19 includes, whereinevaluating the preamble includes evaluating a set of executionrequirements, and further comprising identifying the services based onboth the set of execution requirements and the security requirements.

Example 21 is a data structure stored on a machine-readable mediumcomprising: a preamble stored in the machine-readable medium, which whenexecuted in a secure environment of a device, causes processingcircuitry of the secure environment to perform operations including:evaluating within the secure environment, the preamble to determine aset of security requirements; providing, to an attestation server, anindication of security parameters for services of the devicecorresponding to security requirements of the set of securityrequirements; receiving a confirmation from the attestation server basedon the indication; and in response to receiving the confirmation,providing a request to the device outside the secure environment togenerate a trusted domain including the services.

In Example 22, the subject matter of Example 21 includes, wherein thenon-transitory machine-readable medium includes operations for executionin the trusted domain by the services.

In Example 23, the subject matter of Example 22 includes, wherein thedata structure is configured to prevent execution of the operationsunless the set of security requirements are met.

In Example 24, the subject matter of Examples 21-23 includes, whereinthe non-transitory machine-readable medium includes routing information.

In Example 25, the subject matter of Examples 21-24 includes, whereinthe preamble includes a set of execution requirements, and wherein thepreamble, when executed, causes the processing circuitry to determinewhether the device is configured to provide services corresponding tothe set of execution requirements and subject to the set of securityrequirements.

Example 26 is at least one machine-readable medium includinginstructions that, when executed by processing circuitry, cause theprocessing circuitry to perform operations to implement of any ofExamples 1-25.

Example 27 is an apparatus comprising means to implement of any ofExamples 1-25.

Example 28 is a system to implement of any of Examples 1-25.

Example 29 is a method to implement of any of Examples 1-25.

Another example implementation is an edge computing system, includingrespective edge processing devices and nodes to invoke or perform theoperations of Examples 1-25, or other subject matter described herein.

Another example implementation is a client endpoint node, operable toinvoke or perform the operations of Examples 1-25, or other subjectmatter described herein.

Another example implementation is an aggregation node, network hub node,gateway node, or core data processing node, within or coupled to an edgecomputing system, operable to invoke or perform the operations ofExamples 1-25, or other subject matter described herein.

Another example implementation is an access point, base station,road-side unit, street-side unit, or on-premise unit, within or coupledto an edge computing system, operable to invoke or perform theoperations of Examples 1-25, or other subject matter described herein.

Another example implementation is an edge provisioning node, serviceorchestration node, application orchestration node, or multi-tenantmanagement node, within or coupled to an edge computing system, operableto invoke or perform the operations of Examples 1-25, or other subjectmatter described herein.

Another example implementation is an edge node operating an edgeprovisioning service, application or service orchestration service,virtual machine deployment, container deployment, function deployment,and compute management, within or coupled to an edge computing system,operable to invoke or perform the operations of Examples 1-25, or othersubject matter described herein.

Another example implementation is an edge computing system includingaspects of network functions, acceleration functions, accelerationhardware, storage hardware, or computation hardware resources, operableto invoke or perform the use cases discussed herein, with use ofExamples 1-25, or other subject matter described herein.

Another example implementation is an edge computing system adapted forsupporting client mobility, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V),vehicle-to-everything (V2X), or vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I)scenarios, and optionally operating according to ETSI MECspecifications, operable to invoke or perform the use cases discussedherein, with use of Examples 1-25, or other subject matter describedherein.

Another example implementation is an edge computing system adapted formobile wireless communications, including configurations according to an3GPP 4G/LTE or 5G network capabilities, operable to invoke or performthe use cases discussed herein, with use of Examples 1-25, or othersubject matter described herein.

Another example implementation is an edge computing node, operable in alayer of an edge computing network or edge computing system as anaggregation node, network hub node, gateway node, or core dataprocessing node, operable in a close edge, local edge, enterprise edge,on-premise edge, near edge, middle, edge, or far edge network layer, oroperable in a set of nodes having common latency, timing, or distancecharacteristics, operable to invoke or perform the use cases discussedherein, with use of Examples 1-25, or other subject matter describedherein.

Another example implementation is networking hardware, accelerationhardware, storage hardware, or computation hardware, with capabilitiesimplemented thereupon, operable in an edge computing system to invoke orperform the use cases discussed herein, with use of Examples 1-25, orother subject matter described herein.

Another example implementation is an edge computing system configured toperform use cases provided from one or more of: compute offload, datacaching, video processing, network function virtualization, radio accessnetwork management, augmented reality, virtual reality, industrialautomation, retail services, manufacturing operations, smart buildings,energy management, autonomous driving, vehicle assistance, vehiclecommunications, internet of things operations, object detection, speechrecognition, healthcare applications, gaming applications, oraccelerated content processing, with use of Examples 1-25, or othersubject matter described herein.

Another example implementation is an apparatus of an edge computingsystem comprising: one or more processors and one or morecomputer-readable media comprising instructions that, when executed bythe one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to invokeor perform the use cases discussed herein, with use of Examples 1-25 orother subject matter described herein.

Another example implementation is one or more computer-readable storagemedia comprising instructions to cause an electronic device of an edgecomputing system, upon execution of the instructions by one or moreprocessors of the electronic device, to invoke or perform the use casesdiscussed herein, with use of Examples 1-25, or other subject matterdescribed herein.

Another example implementation is an apparatus of an edge computingsystem comprising means, logic, modules, or circuitry to invoke orperform the use cases discussed herein, with use of Examples 1-25, orother subject matter described herein.

Although these implementations have been described with reference tospecific exemplary aspects, it will be evident that variousmodifications and changes may be made to these aspects without departingfrom the broader scope of the present disclosure. Many of thearrangements and processes described herein can be used in combinationor in parallel implementations to provide greater bandwidth/throughputand to support edge services selections that can be made available tothe edge systems being serviced. Accordingly, the specification anddrawings are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictivesense. The accompanying drawings that form a part hereof show, by way ofillustration, and not of limitation, specific aspects in which thesubject matter may be practiced. The aspects illustrated are describedin sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice theteachings disclosed herein. Other aspects may be utilized and derivedtherefrom, such that structural and logical substitutions and changesmay be made without departing from the scope of this disclosure. ThisDetailed Description, therefore, is not to be taken in a limiting sense,and the scope of various aspects is defined only by the appended claims,along with the full range of equivalents to which such claims areentitled.

Such aspects of the inventive subject matter may be referred to herein,individually and/or collectively, merely for convenience and withoutintending to voluntarily limit the scope of this application to anysingle aspect or inventive concept if more than one is in factdisclosed. Thus, although specific aspects have been illustrated anddescribed herein, it should be appreciated that any arrangementcalculated to achieve the same purpose may be substituted for thespecific aspects shown. This disclosure is intended to cover any and alladaptations or variations of various aspects. Combinations of the aboveaspects and other aspects not specifically described herein will beapparent to those of skill in the art upon reviewing the abovedescription.

Method examples described herein may be machine or computer-implementedat least in part. Some examples may include a computer-readable mediumor machine-readable medium encoded with instructions operable toconfigure an electronic device to perform methods as described in theabove examples. An implementation of such methods may include code, suchas microcode, assembly language code, a higher-level language code, orthe like. Such code may include computer readable instructions forperforming various methods. The code may form portions of computerprogram products. Further, in an example, the code may be tangiblystored on one or more volatile, non-transitory, or non-volatile tangiblecomputer-readable media, such as during execution or at other times.Examples of these tangible computer-readable media may include, but arenot limited to, hard disks, removable magnetic disks, removable opticaldisks (e.g., compact disks and digital video disks), magnetic cassettes,memory cards or sticks, random access memories (RAMs), read onlymemories (ROMs), and the like.

What is claimed is:
 1. A device comprising: processing circuitry operating outside a secure environment; processing circuitry operating within a secure environment; and memory including instructions for security-based orchestration, which when executed by the processing circuitry operating within the secure environment, causes the processing circuitry operating within the secure environment to perform operations including: receiving, from an edge device, a binary file; evaluating a preamble of the binary file to determine a set of security requirements; providing, to an attestation server, an indication of security parameters for services of the device corresponding to security requirements of the set of security requirements; receiving a confirmation from the attestation server based on the indication; and in response to receiving the confirmation, providing a request to the processing circuitry operating outside the secure environment to generate a trusted domain outside the secure environment to execute the services.
 2. The device of claim 1, wherein evaluating the preamble includes sequentially determining whether a service of the device corresponding to each of the set of security requirements meets a respective security requirement.
 3. The device of claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the processing circuitry operating within the secure environment to perform operations including executing the services within the trusted domain using the binary file.
 4. The device of claim 1, wherein the set of security requirements include at least one contingent security requirement, the contingent security requirement including a first requirement for a first level of security for a service, and a second requirement for a second level of security for the service requiring less security than the first level.
 5. The device of claim 4, wherein in response to the first level of security not being met at the device, the instructions further cause the processing circuitry operating within the secure environment to perform operations including providing the indication of security parameters for the services includes providing an indication of security parameters corresponding to the second level of security.
 6. The device of claim 1, wherein the set of security requirements include at least two different levels of security for at least two respective services.
 7. The device of claim 1, wherein the edge device is a vehicle.
 8. The device of claim 1, wherein the preamble is in a header of a packet or in a header packet of the binary file.
 9. The device of claim 1, wherein evaluating the preamble includes evaluating a set of execution requirements, and wherein the instructions further cause the processing circuitry operating within the secure environment to perform operations including identifying the services based on both the execution requirements and the security requirements.
 10. The device of claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the processing circuitry operating within the secure environment to perform operations including: evaluating a second preamble of a second binary file to determine a second set of security requirements and a second set of execution requirements; determining that a security requirement of the second set of security requirements or an execution requirement of the second set of execution requirements cannot be met at the device; and in response to the determination, providing a notification that the respective requirement cannot be met.
 11. The device of claim 1, wherein the device is one of at least two devices receiving the binary file from an orchestration device.
 12. The device of claim 1, wherein the trusted domain is stored and accessible across a network by another device.
 13. An apparatus for security-based orchestration, the apparatus comprising: means for receiving, from an edge device, a binary file at a secure environment of the apparatus; means for evaluating within the secure environment, a preamble of the binary file to determine a set of security requirements; means for providing, to an attestation server, an indication of security parameters for services of the apparatus corresponding to security requirements of the set of security requirements; means for receiving a confirmation from the attestation server based on the indication; and in response to receiving the confirmation, means for providing a request to the apparatus outside the secure environment to generate a trusted domain including the services.
 14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the means for evaluating the preamble include means for sequentially determining whether a service of the apparatus corresponding to each of the set of security requirements meets a respective security requirement.
 15. The apparatus of claim 13, further comprising means for executing the services within the trusted domain using the binary file.
 16. A method for security-based orchestration, the method comprising: receiving, from an edge device, a binary file at a secure environment of a device; evaluating within the secure environment, a preamble of the binary file to determine a set of security requirements; providing, to an attestation server, an indication of security parameters for services of the device corresponding to security requirements of the set of security requirements; receiving a confirmation from the attestation server based on the indication; and in response to receiving the confirmation, providing a request to the device outside the secure environment to generate a trusted domain including the services.
 17. The method of claim 16, wherein the set of security requirements include at least one contingent security requirement, the contingent security requirement including a first requirement for a first level of security for a service, and a second requirement for a second level of security for the service requiring less security than the first level.
 18. The method of claim 17, wherein when the first level of security is not met at the device, providing the indication of security parameters for the services includes providing an indication of security parameters corresponding to the second level of security.
 19. The method of claim 16, wherein the preamble is in a header of a packet or in a header packet of the binary file.
 20. The method of claim 16, wherein evaluating the preamble includes evaluating a set of execution requirements, and further comprising identifying the services based on both the set of execution requirements and the security requirements.
 21. A data structure stored on a machine-readable medium comprising: a preamble stored in the machine-readable medium, which when executed in a secure environment of a device, causes processing circuitry of the secure environment to perform operations including: evaluating within the secure environment, the preamble to determine a set of security requirements; providing, to an attestation server, an indication of security parameters for services of the device corresponding to security requirements of the set of security requirements; receiving a confirmation from the attestation server based on the indication; and in response to receiving the confirmation, providing a request to the device outside the secure environment to generate a trusted domain including the services.
 22. The data structure of claim 21, wherein the non-transitory machine-readable medium includes operations for execution in the trusted domain by the services.
 23. The data structure of claim 22, wherein the data structure is configured to prevent execution of the operations unless the set of security requirements are met.
 24. The data structure of claim 21, wherein the non-transitory machine-readable medium includes routing information.
 25. The data structure of claim 21, wherein the preamble includes a set of execution requirements, and wherein the preamble, when executed, causes the processing circuitry to determine whether the device is configured to provide services corresponding to the set of execution requirements and subject to the set of security requirements. 